By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Sept. 12 -- Energy futures prices fell Thursday, with gasoline again leading the downward slide in reaction to a decline in the spot cash market, which was weakened by reports of new gasoline imports en route to the fading US market.
Unleaded gasoline for October delivery plummeted by 3.28¢ to 84.64¢/gal Thursday on New York Mercantile Exchange. Its precipitous fall triggered protective stop-loss orders for automatic sales that snowballed and impacted other energy commodities.
Heating oil for the same month plunged by 1.63¢ to 75.55¢/gal. The October contract for benchmark US light, sweet crudes lost 53¢ to $28.82/bbl on NYMEX, while the November position was down by 48¢ to $28.95/bbl.
The October natural gas contract fell by 23¢ to $4.74/Mcf, wiping out virtually all of its gain from the previous session (OGJ Online, Sept. 11, 2003). The drop in natural gas futures prices was triggered by the US Energy Information Administration's report early Thursday that 97 bcf of natural gas were injected into US underground storage during the week ended Sept. 5, analysts said Friday at Enerfax Daily.
However, that fall "was halted by lingering uncertainty over whether powerful Hurricane Isabel could end up in the Gulf of Mexico," analysts said. "Traders do not want to short futures (maintain excess open-sales positions) with a monster like Hurricane Isabelle hanging out in the Atlantic with the weekend coming."
The price of natural gas for October delivery had jumped by 23.8¢/Mcf Wednesday on "speculative fears" of a 5-10% possibility that Hurricane Isabel—a powerful Category 4 storm—might move into the Gulf of Mexico. The National Hurricane Center forecast that the hurricane would pass north of Puerto Rico and would still be several hundred miles east of the Florida coast by Tuesday.
In London, The October contract for North Sea Brent oil dropped by 50¢ to $27.02/bbl Thursday on the International Petroleum Exchange. The October natural gas contract lost 1.5¢ to the equivalent of $3.11/Mcf on IPE.
The average price for the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' basket of seven benchmark crudes declined by 4¢ to $26.48/bbl Thursday.