By Reg Curren Dec. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Natural gas in New York declined on speculation that supplies of the heating fuel will be ample to meet winter demand and on concern a slowing economy will reduce energy consumption. Inventories stood at 3.422 trillion cubic feet, or 2.6 percent above the five-year average for the week ended Nov. 21, the Energy Department said last week. “The storage withdrawals over the weekend were pretty low, which will show up in next week’s report,” said Kyle Cooper, an analyst at IAF Advisors in Houston. “Coming into December we’re going to have some pretty good storage levels.” Natural gas for January delivery fell 18.6 cents, or 2.8 percent, to $6.418 per million British thermal units at 11:04 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It earlier rose to $6.659 per million Btu. The Energy Department is scheduled to release its update on stockpiles as of last week on Dec. 4. Sliding industrial demand for energy, including natural gas, is undermining support for prices that lower temperatures during the U.S. winter typically bring, said Stephen Briggs, a partner at Intermarket Management LLC in Verona, New Jersey. “People are expecting companies to go out of business, so maybe there’s not going to be the need for as much gas as last year,” said Briggs. “There’s not going to be any shortage of gas.” The recession is cutting demand in the U.S., where about 42 percent of natural gas consumption comes from industrial and commercial users. The Energy Department said last month that industrial demand may fall 2.2 percent in 2009 as the economy slumps. To contact the reporter on this story: Reg Curren in Calgary at rcurren@bloomberg.net.

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