Natural gas dropped 4.8 percent, the biggest decline in three months, as forecasts showed milder weather next week, reducing demand for the heating fuel. Gas fell to the lowest price in more than six weeks as the National Weather Service predicted temperatures will be higher than usual in the U.S. East and Midwest from Feb. 12 to Feb. 16. The weather has been colder than normal this month. U.S. gas stockpiles are 0.2 percent above the five-year average, according to an Energy Department report last week. “It’s gradually getting warmer and you are having declining winter-heating needs,” said Carl Neill, an energy consultant at Risk Management Inc. in Atlanta. “The storage draws are big and strong but they just haven’t been overwhelming enough to really draw down storage to below average levels.” Natural gas for March delivery fell 20.6 cents to $4.104 per million British thermal units on theNew York Mercantile Exchange, the lowest settlement price since Dec. 23. The percentage loss was the biggest since Nov. 1. The futures have dropped 26 percent from a year ago. There will be widespread above-normal weather for the “central to eastern thirds of the nation” next week, according to Commodity Weather Group LLC in Bethesda, Maryland. New York will have a high of 52 degrees Fahrenheit (11 Celsius) on Feb. 15, 11 degrees above normal, according to AccuWeather Inc. in State College, Pennsylvania. Boston will have a high of 47 degrees, 8 degrees above normal. About 52 percent of U.S. households use natural gas for heating, according to the Energy Department. Supply Report U.S. gas inventories fell 189 billion cubic feet in the week ended Jan. 28 to 2.353 trillion, the Energy Department said on Feb. 3. The surplus to the five-year average narrowed from 1.2 percent the previous week. The number of U.S. gas drilling rigs declined by two last week to 911, according to Baker Hughes Inc. The rig count was 3.8 percent higher than a year earlier. Benchmark gas prices at the Henry Hub will average $3.94 million Btu this year, analysts including Biliana Pehlivanova at Barclays Capital in New York said in a report today. Prices will rise to $4.50 next year, they said. “Ultimately, the recovery in prices must come from the supply side; there is no demand boost over the next few years that could single-handedly restore market balance,” the analysts said. LNG Imports Imports of liquefied natural gas to North America will be unchanged at 1.2 billion cubic feet a day this year “as the region continues to struggle with domestic oversupply,” the Barclays analysts said. GDF Suez’s LNG terminal near Boston is scheduled to receive two cargos this month, according to vessel tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. Catalunya Spirit, which can move as much as 135,423 cubic meters of the fuel, or about 2.92 billion cubic feet of natural gas, is scheduled to arrive on Feb. 14, the data showed. GDF SuezCape Ann, which can move as much as 145,000 cubic meters of LNG, is scheduled to arrive on Feb. 20. Gas futures volume in electronic trading on the Nymex was 413,623 as of 2:56 p.m., compared with the three-month average of 291,000. Volume was 292,536 on Feb. 4. Open interest was 865,691 contracts. The three-month average open interest is 794,000. The exchange has a one-business-day delay in reporting open interest and full volume data. Quelle: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-07/natural-gas-drops-to-six-week-low-in-n-y-on-forecast-of-milder-weather.html
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