This week the report looked pretty bearish. We were expecting a build in crude oil inventories and we actually saw a build of 5.7 million barrels, which was much more than expected. We also saw an unexpectedly large build in gasoline inventories this week. Crude oil prices are up today, although it has little to do with today’s inventory report or the value of the dollar, which is actually up against the euro today…

A Business News survey showed expectations for a 1.5 million barrel build in crude oil inventories in the US but we actually got 2.4 million barrels. It was a little higher than expected…

Utilities are using natural gas to reduce their emissions of pollutants such as sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide. Whether you believe in global warming or not, the legislation for globally combating carbon dioxide emissions is real, so we need to keep this in mind as investors.
As to the coal issue; the use of coal will grow in importance driven by the developing world including countries such as China and India.

Let’s talk more about the natural gas markets and the role of liquified natural gas in the global natural gas markets. European natural gas prices are considerably higher than the prices here in the US. LNG shipments are headed for Europe helping to restrict supplies…

Personal Finance: Generally what we’ve been seeing with natural gas inventories is that for most of 2007 inventories were well above average and actually we’re setting new highs for much of the year. This year we’ve actually seen those inventories moderate rapidly with the weather acting as the primary driver…

It’s hard to ignore global warming and the fact that oil is now at 0 per barrel. Ohio has put about 1.5 billion into a fund for “green collar” jobs which are alternative energy jobs. Ohio is putting money into wind turbines…

Natural gas inventories released today were bullish. The EIA reported a drawdown of 85 billion cubic feet, above analyst expectations and the 5-year average drawdown for this week of about 50 billion cubic feet. Natural gas inventories are now in-line with the five-year average and I suspect we’ll undercut that average before the end of March. Gas prices ticked higher intra-day on the news but gas remains lower overall today.

Personal Finance: How To Profit From 0 Oil
With gas prices continuing on an upward spiral and many people focused on oil trading at around 0, investors are thinking, “how can we cash in on the upward movement in the price of energy?”

Personal Finance: Natural gas inventories were off 151 billion cubic feet this week. That’s a slightly larger-than-expected drawdown and above the average drawdown for this week. Natural gas inventories have been bloated for two years, capping all rallies in the commodity. But now, natural gas storage levels are as close to average as they’ve been in 2 years.

This is yet another bullish report for natural gas — the 12-month NYMEX strip now stands at .70 per million BTUs. Yet, US natural gas prices are still below prevailing prices in Europe and Asia — the current strip in the UK is at 54 perce per therm, the equivalent of about .50/MMBTU. That means that imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) should remain subdued, helping to further normalize inventories. Below I offer a more complete analysis in video format and a chart of the current natural gas inventory situation.

Unlike oil, gas has not traditionally been a globally traded commodity. Most gas historically has moved by pipeline so it’s a regional market. So, for example, North America was one market connected by pipelines and Europe another.

LNG is starting to change that because gas can be shipped anywhere in the world where prices are most favorable. So, for example, if gas prices are higher in the EU than the US, more LNG flows to Europe.