Trickle

Whether the long-predicted tide of liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports comes to U.S. shores as a torrent or a trickle remains to be seen. The predictions of two industry watchers vary greatly, but they’re both looking to Europe for clues.

Whether the long-predicted tide of liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports comes to U.S. shores as a torrent or a trickle remains to be seen. The predictions of two industry watchers vary greatly, but they’re both looking to Europe for clues.

With most people within the industry still focused on the Iran situation, its impact on the petroleum markets and the trickle-down effect on natural gas futures, the May natural gas contract recorded a high of $7.790 and a low of $7.550 before closing at $7.671, down 5.9 cents from Friday.

Perhaps admitting to a little bit of overzealousness during Monday’s 16-cent rally, natural gas futures traders in overnight Access trading and then again on Tuesday pushed the February contract lower. With non-commercial traders continuing to hold a sizeable net-short position and some market watchers believing that the four-month-long downtrend is still intact, the question now becomes how much longer can the trend continue before it shows signs of cracking.

Filling in the gap from the last week of December’s low trade, February natural gas ran up to notch a $6.10 high in Friday morning trade before zigzagging for the remainder of the session. Futures appeared a little confused during the session as scattered weather forecasts pointed to cold weather penetrating the East following the weekend. The prompt month ended up settling at $6.001, down 4.8 cents on the day and 14.8 cents lower than Thursday’s $6.149 settle from the previous week.

Natural gas prices slipped lower for the third-straight session Wednesday as traders continued to lighten their longs ahead of the release of weekly inventory data Thursday. Similar to the early weakness exhibited on Monday and Tuesday, the market experienced its heaviest selling in the morning Wednesday, forcing bulls to battle back in the afternoon from a deep deficit.

Light short-covering buoyed the futures market at the openFriday, as traders exited positions ahead of the holiday weekend.However, sellers above the $1.80 level were waiting and pushed theprompt month to a lower close. The February contract slipped 1.3cents lower to close at $1.796 in Friday’s abbreviated tradingsession. The New York Mercantile Exchange will be closed Monday inobservance of Martin Luther King Day