Busting

Soft gas demand due to a weak economy and mild weather is driving the industry through what could be a belly-busting storage injection season with record inventories quite possible. Whatever pain is to come for producers will emanate first from full caverns in the producing region, analysts at Barclays Capital said Tuesday.

September natural gas futures staged a stout 29.1-cent advance Monday to settle at $6.499, and for the moment all concern of bin-busting inventories and low demand have been put on the back burner. The latest government figures show that funds and managed accounts increased their short holdings by more than 20%, thus adding to the overwhelming short holdings (and number of ultimate buyers) of speculative accounts.

Spring is busting out all over — finally — and that translates to lower spot prices. Quotes fell across the board Thursday; a few drops were in single digits, but the rest were fairly consistent in all regions in ranging from a dime to just over 20 cents.

There was a strong bull rally in gas futures yesterday. Afterbusting through and settling above the $3 barrier on Wednesday, Maysurged 6.6 cents higher to a new high of $3.087, a couple centsfrom its daily high of $3.105 and a greater distance from its$3.045 low for the day. The summer strip closed up 6.8 cents at anew high of $3.11, and the 12-month strip set a new high at $3.116.