CADIZ TRADERS THREAD

Oil, natural gas fall ahead of weekly supply data
NEW YORK (AFX) - Crude-oil and natural-gas futures fell early Thursday ahead
of the release later today of data on supplies of oil, gasoline, distillates and
natural gas.
Crude for February delivery was last trading down 19 cents at $59.63 a
barrel. Natural gas was down 14.80 cents at $11.489 per million British thermal
units.
Both commodities closed higher Wednesday amid growing expectations the
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will cut production at its Jan. 31
meeting.
Iranian deputy oil minister Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh in a local newspaper
article called for such a move to support prices.
The Department of Energy will release the supply data at 10.30 a.m. Eastern
Time, a day later than usual because of the Christmas holiday.
Analysts at Fimat USA are expecting rises of 2.1 million barrels in crude
inventories in the latest week, 1.1 million barrels in distillates, which
include heating oil, and 1.6 million in gasoline.
Platts is expecting a 2.4 million barrel decline in crude stocks, an 800,000
barrel reduction in stocks of gasoline and a fall of 1.25 million barrels in
distillates.
Turning to natural gas, Fimat is forecasting a 128-billion-cubic-foot
drawdown in gas in storage.
Platts is expecting a bigger 150 to 160 billion cubic feet reduction in gas
in storage.
At Stephen Smith Energy Associates, analysts are expecting a reduction of
154 billion cubic feet.

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