Count me in, too. I did some nibbling today.
By Gloria Gonzalez, BridgeNews
New York--Nov. 30--November natural gas cash prices for next day
delivery soared on strong demand for physical natural gas due to cool
temperatures in the Northeast and Midwest for the next few days and a
tight power market in the West.
* * *
NYMEX Jan Henry Hub natural gas futures settled up 40.8 cents at
$6.589 per MMBtu cents after scoring a new all-time spot month high of
$6.730 on a private forecast that called for cooler weather in the Midwest
and lingering bullish sentiment about the latest storage data. A break of
key technical levels, namely the previous spot month high of $6.620 and
Jan's contract high of $6.680, added fuel to the rally.
Strong physical demand was seen in the cash market with the Henry Hub
trading about 35 to 40 cents higher this morning. "We had buyers coming
out of the woodwork," one cash trader said.
Natural gas prices at western points are still strong as the power
market in the west remains tight, mainly due to outages at several key
nuclear units in the region. Topock (Southern California border) prices
hit the $20 mark and have traded in a range of $17.50 to $20.50 Thursday
due to tight power supplies in California.
"I think we had a glorious peak today," another trader said, adding
that cash prices would probably slide ahead of the weekend Friday.
U.S. Gulf natural gas traded in a range of $6.14 to $6.40 per MMBtu,
up 34 to 40 cents when compared to Wednesday's range of $5.74 to $6.06 per
MMBtu.
Midcontinent natural gas traded at $6.03 to $6.34 per MMBtu, up 32 to
34 cents when compared to Wednesday's range of $5.71 to $6.00.
Western gas traded in a wide range of $6.21 to $20.00 per MMBtu, up 60
cents to $2.00 when compared to Wednesday's range of $5.61 to $18.50 per
MMBtu.
In Canada, day gas at Nova's AECO-C Hub traded in a range of C$8.10 to
$8.40 per gigajoule when compared to Wednesday's C$7.80 to C$7.90 range.
TransCanada reported Alberta line-pack at 13.647 bcf, with the
pipeline packing at a rate of 135 MMcf/d.
Relatively cool weather will affect much of the eastern half of the
country through this weekend. No extreme cold is expected, but heating
demands will be above average in most locations. The western half of the
country will experience milder weather and near- or below-normal heating
needs. End |
