NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Natural gas futures traded lower Friday, as traders remained focused on high U.S. inventory levels and mild weather curbing gas-fired heating demand. Natural gas for November delivery recently traded down 6.2 cents, or 1.7%, to $3.568 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The retreat wipes out all of Thursday's gains, which came on the back of a report showing a smaller-than-expected increase in natural gas inventories last week. Although the figure was enough to send prices higher in the short term, inventory levels still remain high and demand weak, market observers said. "The number yesterday, although might have been below expectations, it certainly wasn't bullish," said Kyle Cooper, managing partner at IAF Energy Advisors in Houston. "If weather demand doesn't materialize this winter, prices could go much lower." Natural gas inventories last week rose 103 billion cubic feet, according to the U.S. Department of Energy's weekly storage report. The figure was smaller than the 110-bcf injection forecast by analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires, and prices rose in the wake of the report. However, the build was still large by historical standards and overall inventories of 3.624 trillion cubic feet are closing in on last year's all-time high of 3.840 trillion cubic feet. That large supply, coupled with a mild hurricane season and weak "shoulder period" demand have weighed on gas prices recently. Futures have been stuck below $4/MMBtu since Sept. 15, and are likely to remain there until temperatures move significantly lower. "This year's hurricane season has proven uneventful and has accommodated a comparatively strong pace of off shore output," Jim Ritterbusch, head of the trading advisory firm Ritterbusch and Associates, said in a research report. "Given these considerations, a case for significantly lower prices could easily be constructed." Fazit: Wenn NG dann zu US 0.000001 per MillionCubic angeboten wird, dann kauf ich den Weltvorrat für die nächsten 100 Jahre auf. Wer dann noch Gas will muss es sich bei mir erkaufen............ |