DJ Natural Gas Steady Ahead of Inventory Data
By Nicole Friedman
NEW YORK--Natural-gas futures traded nearly flat at three-year lows Thursday ahead of weekly inventory data, which is
expected to show that the market remains oversupplied with the heating fuel.
Futures for November delivery recently traded unchanged at $2.404 a million British thermal units on the New York
Mercantile Exchange.
Prices fell to three-year lows Wednesday on concerns that warmer-than-average temperatures in the coming weeks would
keep natural-gas consumption subdued. Natural gas is used as a primary heating fuel in about half of U.S. households.
"The start of the so-called official winter heating season is still dominated by mostly unseasonably warm
temperatures over major parts of the U.S.," said Dominick Chirichella, analyst at the Energy Management Institute, in a
note to clients.
Robust production and moderate demand pushed the natural-gas market into surplus this summer. As of Oct. 9,
inventories of natural gas in the U.S. stood 4.7% above the five-year average for this time of year, according to the
U.S. Energy Information Administration.
The EIA is due to release data for the week ended Oct. 16 at 10:30 a.m. EDT, and analysts and traders surveyed by The
Wall Street Journal expect the data to show that stockpiles grew by 87 billion cubic feet last week, close to the
average storage addition for this time of year.
Physical gas for next-day delivery at the Henry Hub in Louisiana last traded at $2.335/mmBtu, compared with
Wednesday's range of $2.3475-$2.38. Cash prices at the Transco Z6 hub in New York last traded between $2.30 and
$2.50/mmBtu, compared with Wednesday's range of $2.13-$2.20.
Write to Nicole Friedman at nicole.friedman@wsj.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 22, 2015 09:39 ET (13:39 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2015 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
102215 13:39 -- GMT
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