Here are two articles. The first to which I was referring to yesterday, followed by another one today. Hope this helps. Gotta run.
Natural Gas Rises to Two-Month High on Outlook for Inventories
2012-05-09 14:58:08.426 GMT
By Naureen S. Malik
May 9 (Bloomberg) -- Natural gas futures rose to a two- month high in New York on speculation that a supply surplus declined last week because of slowing production and rising demand from power plants.
Gas gained as much as 3.4 percent before an Energy Department report tomorrow that may show an increase in U.S.
inventories of 32 billion cubic feet, based on a median of 11 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. The five-year average gain for the week is 84 billion. The department yesterday cut its output growth estimate by 0.1 percent and said demand from electricity generators will jump 21 percent this year.
“It means that things have turned, as far as the storage situation, and as the summer moves on we are going to begin to eat into the surplus,” said Brad Florer, a trader at Kottke Associates LLC in Louisville, Kentucky. “The bounce definitely has teeth and there seem to be reasons for it instead of some short covering.”
Natural gas for June delivery gained 7.6 cents, or 3.2 percent, to $2.469 per million British thermal units at 10:17 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gas rose to $2.475, the highest intraday price since March 2.
A supply surplus in the week ended April 27 narrowed to 50 percent above the five-year average from a six-year high of 61 percent at the end of March, Energy Department data show. A below-average inventory gain for the week ended May 4 would narrow the surplus for the fifth straight week.
Narrower Surplus
A declining surplus tends to support prices, Tim Evans, an energy analyst at Citi Futures Perspective in New York, said in a note to clients yesterday. “The market will also be concerned that the storage surplus continues to fall fast enough,” he said.
Marketed gas production in the U.S. will average 69.14 billion cubic feet a day this year, down from 69.22 billion estimated in April, the Energy Department said in its Short-Term Energy Outlook yesterday. The total was up 4.4 percent from a record 66.22 billion produced in 2011.
The data suggests production growth has halted, “not that it has fallen to a level that will provide reliable ongoing support,” Evans said. Instead, the market will depend on utility demand that “may mean both increased sensitivity to swings in temperature as well as risk of losing some market share to coal if natural gas prices rise too far.”
Power Plants
Large consumption gains in electric power in 2012 use “will offset declines” in residential and consumer demand that was crimped by an unusually warm winter, the department said in the report. Consumption at gas-fired power plants will peak at
31.2 billion cubic feet a day in the third quarter, when air conditioning use is the highest, up from 27.7 billion a year earlier.
Gas use typically falls after the winter heating season and before hot weather drives demand from power plants to run air conditioners.
Warmer-than-normal weather last week, particularly in the South, boosted cooling demand to more than double normal for the week ended May 5, according to Weather Derivatives. The Belton, Missouri-based forecaster said net air conditioning use will be below normal for the week ending May 16.
Temperatures will be below average in Texas through May 18 while above-normal temperatures on the West Coast will spread to the Northeast during the same period, according to MDA EarthSat Weather in Gaithersburg, Maryland.
The high in Dallas on May 18 will be 80 degrees Fahrenheit
(27 Celsius), 5 below normal, according to AccuWeather Inc. in State College, Pennsylvania. Chicago may see a high of 82 degrees that day, 11 above normal.
For Related News and Information:
Natural Gas Prices: NG1 <COMMODITY> GP <GO> Top Energy Stories: ETOP <GO> Top Natural Gas Market Stories: TGAS <GO>
--Editors: Bill Banker, Dan Stets
To contact the reporter on this story:
Naureen S. Malik in New York at +1-212-617-7784 or nmalik28@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Dan Stets at +1-212-617-4403 or
dstets@bloomberg.net.
Natural Gas Gains a Third Day After U.S. Says Prices at Bottom
2012-05-09 03:24:51.131 GMT
By Naureen S. Malik and Dinakar Sethuraman
May 9 (Bloomberg) -- Natural gas futures rose for a third day to a two-month high after a government report yesterday spurred speculation that prices won’t revisit the lows of April as production growth slows and demand gains.
Gas climbed as much as 2.2 percent today, extending yesterday’s 2.4 percent increase, after the Energy Information Administration said yesterday that an average price of $1.95 per million British thermal units in April will be the low for the year. The federal agency cut its estimate of 2012 U.S. gas production growth by 0.1 percent and said demand increased.
“The EIA’s projections are showing we are not going to go below $1.95,” said Dominick Chirichella, senior partner at the Energy Management Institute yesterday in New York. “Maybe the worst is over. I think demand is quite good from coal-to-gas switching and production is down slightly.”
Natural gas for June delivery rose 3.6 cents to $2.429 per million British thermal units in electronic trading at 11:13 a.m. Singapore time on the New York Mercantile Exchange, set for the highest settlement since March 2. The contract rose as high as $2.445. Gas has dropped 19 percent this year.
The April price of $1.95 at the Henry Hub in Louisiana, the delivery point for futures contracts, was the lowest monthly average since 1999, the government said yesterday in its Short- Term Energy outlook. Options trading picked up after the department released the report, with increased buying coming from hedge funds and possibly utilities, Chirichella said.
Marketed gas production in the U.S. will average 69.14 billion cubic feet a day this year, down from 69.22 billion estimated in April, the Energy Department said in the monthly report. The total is up 4.4 percent from a record 66.22 billion produced in 2011.
For Related News and Information:
Natural Gas Prices: NG1 <COMMODITY> GP <GO> Top Energy Stories: ETOP <GO> Top Natural Gas Market Stories: TGAS <GO>
--Editors: Christian Schmollinger, Mike Anderson
To contact the reporters on this story:
Dinakar Sethuraman in New Delhi at +65-6212-1590 or dinakar@bloomberg.net; Naureen S. Malik in New York at +1-212-617-7784 or nmalik28@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Alexander Kwiatkowski at +65-6212-1329 or akwiatkowsk2@bloomberg.net; Dan Stets at +1-212-617-4403 or dstets@bloomberg.net. |
