Friday, December 26, 2014
Natural gas prices plunge in mild winter - Dec. 26, 2014
International U.S. CNNMoney's 2015 Playbook: Oil & Gas First Published: December 26, 2014: 2:38 PM ET Accounting Finance Marketing Engineering Management Sales See All Jobs��▶ � 2014 Cable News Network. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Privacy Policy . . The diminished demand has pushed prices below $3 per British thermal unit (BTU) on the futures market Friday for the first time since 2012. Prices are down about 33% since Thanksgiving. "We don't have any weather," said Stephen Schork, an energy analyst and trader in Villanova, PA. "Natural gas is the most weather-sensitive commodity there is." Schork added that government data released last week showed a growing surplus in natural gas supplies. The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimated in October that residential fuel bills will fall 5% this winter as households use less natural gas for heating, compared with last year's unusually frigid temperatures (remember the Polar Vortex?) Still, natural gas prices in the futures market aren't always indicative of what consumers pay. That's because gas companies lock in prices for the commodity well in advance, to protect themselves from volatility in the market. In addition, some natural gas suppliers charge their customers a fixed rate, so those buyers won't see any difference in prices. Roughly half of American households use natural gas for heating and cooking . The biggest factor in determining household heating costs is consumption. U.S. consumers are enjoying lower energy prices across the board with oil and gasoline prices also tumbling to record lows. Energy prices have been depressed in recent years amid a glut of supply from unconventional sources in the United States and Canada. The continued malaise of European and Asian economies has also kept global energy demand low and contributed to falling prices. Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer . Morningstar: � 2014 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2014. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor�s Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices � S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2014 and/or its affiliates.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment