By Reg Curren Dec. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Natural gas in New York gained for a second day, following crude oil, which rose on a decline in the dollar and amid speculation OPEC and Russia will coordinate efforts to slash output. The Russian government will announce measures for trimming production in a bid to stem a price slide in crude by Dec. 17, when the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries meets to consider further output cuts, Interfax reported. A weakening dollar lifted gold, wheat and copper futures. “The dollar is down, and dollar-denominated commodities were slightly higher across the board,” said Michael Rose, a director of trading at Angus Jackson Inc. in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He called crude’s gain “absolutely positive” for gas. Gas for January delivery rose 3.7 cents, or 0.7 percent, to $5.616 per million British thermal units at 9:15 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The futures earlier reached $5.685 per million Btu. Natural gas has declined 25 percent this year. Oil for January delivery rose $2.34, or 5.6 percent, to $44.41 a barrel on the exchange. It earlier gained as much as 6.3 percent. Gas futures also appear to have found support around $5.50 per million Btu, Rose said. “It dipped slightly below that yesterday and couldn’t hold it and went up,” he said. “We are in wintertime, so it’s very hard to sell natural gas futures.” Futures fell to $5.484 per million Btu on Dec. 8 and closed higher, and repeated a similar move yesterday with a decline to $5.458 followed by a move up to $5.579. To contact the reporter on this story: Reg Curren in Calgary at rcurren@bloomberg.net.

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