Natural Gas Drops for Second Day as Nuclear Power Plants Restart
May 12, 2011, 11:39 AM EDTBy Christine Buurma
May 12 (Bloomberg) -- Natural gas futures declined for a second day in New York on speculation that demand for the fuel will drop as nuclear power plants return from maintenance shutdowns.
Gas futures fell as much as 1.7 percent after the Nuclear Regulatory Commission reported that atomic power production climbed for a sixth day, according to an NRC report today and data compiled by Bloomberg. Prices rose earlier after the Energy Department reported a smaller-than-expected gain in U.S. gas inventories.
“The storage number was a tad below expectations, but it wasn’t enough to move the needle in terms of pushing the market much higher or lower,” said Kent Bayazitoglu, an analyst with Gelber & Associates in Houston. “Much of the lost nuclear capacity is coming back online, and that’s bearish for natural gas.”
Natural gas for June delivery fell 0.2 cent to $4.179 per million British thermal units at 11:09 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The futures have declined 5.1 percent this year.
Gas inventories rose 70 billion cubic feet in the week ended May 6 to 1.827 trillion cubic feet, the Energy Department said today. Analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg showed an expected gain of 71 billion cubic feet.
--Editors: Bill Banker, Richard Stubbe
To contact the reporter on this story: Christine Buurma in New York at cbuurma1@bloomberg.net;
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dan Stets at dstets@bloomberg.net
