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Gold/Mining/Energy : Strictly: Drilling and oil-field services -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: oilbabe who wrote (51399)	9/19/1999 10:01:00 AM
From: oilbabe	Respond to of 95453

Natural Gas Rises as Traders Store Fuel Now to Sell in December New York, Sept. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Natural gas rose for the first time in six days as traders sought easy gains by buying the contract closest to delivery while selling contracts for delivery in the winter, when prices are higher. ``The market is being generous when you can buy gas now and sell it in December to lock in' a profit, said Tim Evans, an analyst at Pegasus Econometric Group in New York. ``You're going to do that as many times as you can.' Gas traditionally rallies in the winter, when demand rises for heating needs. During a cold day in the winter, the U.S. will burn as much as 73 billion cubic feet of natural gas, about double demand during mild spring or fall days. Natural gas for October delivery at the Henry Hub in Louisiana rose 6.2 cents, or 2.4 percent, to $2.608 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The December contract rose 7.7 cents, or 2.7 percent, to $2.974 per million Btu, 36.6 cents higher than October. The cost to store the gas in one futures contract for a month is about 10 cents to 12 cents, Evans said, which would give traders a gain of $1,260 to $1,660 per contract in the October- December transaction, according to today's close. Gains would be greater by buying the fuel on the physical market, where prices are lower, traders said. Before today, gas for October delivery had fallen 11 percent since Sept. 9 after U.S. inventories rose more than expected for two straight weeks. The December contract was down 3 percent in the same period. The American Gas Association said U.S. inventories increased 81 billion cubic feet, or 3.1 percent, to 2.7 trillion cubic feet during the week ended Sept. 10. Traders and analysts surveyed by Bloomberg estimated, on average, that 63 billion cubic feet had been put into storage. The week before, the AGA said U.S. inventories rose 66 billion cubic feet, above expectations for a gain of 60 billion.