US natural gas speculators boosted their net long positions for the first time in five weeks betting prices will rise as exports increase and lingering cold weather cuts further into already low inventories. Speculators in four major New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) and Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) markets added to their bullish bets by 28,317 contracts to 221,087 in the week to April 17, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission said on Friday.
That compares with a five-year (2013-2017) average speculative net long position of 161,450. The biggest net long position was 456,475 in April 2013, while the biggest net short position was 166,165 in November 2015, according to Reuters data. Gas futures on the NYMEX averaged $2.72 per million British thermal units during the five trading days ended April 17 versus $2.69 during the five trading days ended April 10.
US gas inventories were almost 26 percent below the five-year average during the week ended April 13 after utilities pulled immense amounts of fuel out of storage to heat homes and businesses during several bitter cold weeks earlier in the winter. Pipeline and liquefied natural gas exports, meanwhile, are expected to rise to an annual average of 10.5 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) in 2018 and 12.9 bcfd in 2019 from 8.7 bcfd in 2017, according to federal energy projections in April.
The United States transitioned from a net importer of gas into a net exporter of the fuel on an annual basis in 2017. Before that, the United States was last a net exporter of gas on an annual basis in 1957.