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Gold/Mining/Energy : KOB.TO - East Lost Hills & GSJB joint venture -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: grayhairs who wrote (6007)	10/22/1999 4:02:00 PM
From: Taff	Respond to of 15703

Natural gas close Natural gas rose almost 3 percent to a Filed: 10/21/99 By Mark Pittman c.1999 Bloomberg News New York, Oct. 21 (Bloomberg) ? Natural gas rose almost 3 percent to a two-month high after a report of a smaller-than-expected inventory gain signaled that cooler weather is boosting demand, even before the heating season. U.S. supplies rose by 42 billion cubic feet, or 1.4 percent last week, the American Gas Association said after trading yesterday. The increase was less than the 48 billion cubic feet expected by analysts and left supplies about 1 percent lower than a year ago, before the start of the peak demand period. "The industry is bulled up on this market because they're convinced there's not going to be enough gas," said Bill O'Grady, vice president, director of fundamental futures research, at A.G. Edwards & Sons in St. Louis. "The AGA figure is pretty neutral, which tells me that this market wants to go higher, and there's no point in standing in its way." Natural gas for November delivery at the Henry Hub in Louisiana rose 8.6 cents, or 2.9 percent, to $3.064 per million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That matched the closing price on Aug. 23, which was the highest since November 1997. Natural gas inventories, while lower than a year ago, are about 1 percent above the five-year average peak before winter, according to AGA figures. Supplies normally reach their highest level in late October or early November. Heating needs on the U.S. East Coast have been slightly higher than normal because of cooler weather, according to Michael Palmerino, a forecaster at Weather Services Corp. in Lexington, Massachusetts. In Washington and Baltimore, temperatures have averaged 2 degrees below normal over the past seven days, Palmerino said. In New York City, temperatures were about 1 degree below normal. Winter Needs Distributors build up inventories of natural gas at this time of year to meet cold-weather demand. During a cold day in winter, the U.S. can burn as much as 73 billion cubic feet of natural gas. That's as much as distributors often put away during an entire week in the spring and fall, when consumption drops to about 30 billion cubic feet a day. The nation's average daily production last year was about 51 billion cubic feet, and about 8 billion cubic feet per day is imported from Canada and Mexico, according to the Department of Energy. O'Grady said the January contract could rise as high as $4 per million Btu by mid-November. "If you listen to the trade, they're saying we're running out of natural gas," O'Grady said. "The more subtle argument is that we're running out of gas at $2 (per million Btu). We'll have a lot of gas if it goes for higher prices."