dopo gli hurricanes tropicali è la volta delle tempeste invernali, sta natura infida e cattiva
Natural Gas Prices Soar as Winter Hits US
Friday December 9,
By En-Lai Yeoh, Associated Press Writer
Natural Gas Prices Soar to New Highs as Winter Weather Hits US; Crude, Heating Oil Also Up
SINGAPORE (AP) -- Natural-gas prices rose to a new record Friday as a winter storm hit the northern United States, while crude and heating oil prices also gained amid expectations for strong demand.
Natural gas for January delivery reached a new intraday high of $15.52 per 1,000 cubic feet in electronic Asian trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange before slipping back to $15.351 per 1,000 cubic feet, up nearly 36 cents. The contract had closed at $14.994 overnight, also a new record.
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Nymex crude was also higher. Light, sweet crude oil for January delivery surged 58 cents to $61.24 a barrel in midday electronic trading in Europe.
Although more than $9 lower than its all-time high of $70.85 a barrel set Sept. 30, oil prices are more than 40 percent higher than a year ago.
On London's ICE Futures, January Brent was up 46 cents at $59.13 a barrel.
"The price rise is all based on forecasts of cold weather to hit large portions of the United States," said Victor Shum, a Singapore-based analyst at energy consultants Purvin & Gertz. "The weather affects natural gas, but the (trading) psychology also affects the oil market."
In other Nymex trading, heating oil was up by more than 2 cents to $1.8041 a gallon, and gasoline rose just a bit more to $1.6500 a gallon.
Forecasters AccuWeather said a winter storm will dump a "substantial amount" of snow along the northeastern corridor of the United States, which consumes around 80 percent of total heating oil used in the U.S., the world's largest energy user.
On Wednesday in the United States, bitterly cold air poured southward across the midsection of the country, sending temperatures to record lows from Montana to Illinois.
The U.S. Energy Department recently predicted that households heating primarily with natural gas can expect to spend about 50 percent more this winter.
With several more months of wintry conditions expected, analysts also predicted the early jump in prices could provide a higher base.
"Winter has a long way to go," said Shum. "The market psychology supports a rather high price. This is only December, the anticipation of the continuation of colder weather will provide a high price floor."
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries meets Monday in Kuwait, where it will dictate its pricing policy for the new year. Most analysts are not expecting OPEC to cut output when it meets. Typically, the organization considers cutting output when stocks start building and prices fall.
Venezuela, one of the cartel's more hawkish members, said it would defend the price of its oil, but did not specify what level it would be comfortable with.
"We will propose all of the measures necessary to defend the price of our oil. As a producing nation we believe that oil has a just price," said Venezuelan oil minister Rafael Ramirez.
