BLBG: Natural Gas Futures Drop as Supply Increase May Exceed Year-Earlier Gain
Natural gas futures fell in New York before a government report that may show a U.S. inventory increase last week that was bigger than a year earlier.
The Energy Department may say today that gas stockpiles rose 90 billion cubic feet in the week ended May 13, according to the median of 22 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Supplies gained 76 billion cubic feet a year earlier.
“The consensus is that we will see a much bigger number than the past few reports,” said Carl Neill, an energy consultant at Risk Management Inc. in Atlanta. “But summer temperatures are coming in so it’s hard to be too bearish.”
Natural gas for June delivery dropped 3 cents, or 0.7 percent, to $4.168 per million British thermal units at 9:06 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The futures have declined 5.4 percent this year.
To contact the reporters on this story: Moming Zhou in New York at Mzhou29@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dan Stets at dstets@bloomberg.net
