Natural gas rose At the first weekly increase this month

Natural gas rose in New York, recording the first weekly increase this month in the forecast below-normal temperatures that can cause an increased demand for heating oil.

Colder weather than normal may blanket much of eastern U.S. from November 24 to 28 November, according to Time Commodity Group in Bethesda, Maryland. Temperatures in some parts of the Midwest can be up to 8 degrees below normal, the company said.

"It looks pretty inevitable that the market has a win against her," said Gene McGillian, an analyst and broker at Tradition Energy in Stamford, Connecticut.

Natural gas for December delivery rose 15.7 cents, or 3.9 percent, to settle at $ 4.164 per million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract, up 25 percent this year, gained 9.6 percent this week.

"Once we get our first real signs of heating demand, the market will likely reach $ 4.50 or $ 4.75," said McGillian.

Temperatures can be below normal in the east coast and parts of Southeast and Great Lakes from November 29 through December 3, commodity group, told El Tiempo.

The high temperature in Chicago on 25 November can be 31 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 1 C), 12 degrees below normal, according to AccuWeather Inc. in State College, Pennsylvania.

"A heat wave will record in the Ohio Valley Sunday until Monday, but the cold that is going to be the most extreme shooting to finish the month of November in more than a year," said Joe Bastardi, senior meteorologist AccuWeather Inc., in a note to clients.

Fuel consumption

heating demand in the U.S. may average 20 percent above normal from November 25 to November 29, according to David Salmon, a meteorologist with Weather Derivatives in Belton, Missouri.

About 52 percent of U.S. households the use of natural gas for heating, Energy Department data show.

gas inventories can total of 1.776 trillion cubic feet at the end of the winter heating season in March to about 114 million cubic feet a year, the Department of Energy estimates that on 9 November in the monthly magazine short-term energy outlook.

gas inventories gained 3 billion cubic feet in the week ended Nov. 12 to 3843 trillion cubic feet, the Energy Department said in a report yesterday. The increase in reserves left by 9.3 percent above the five-year average for that week and 0.3 percent above last year's level, indicating the abundance of supplies for the winter, when peak use of fuel.

Storage of surplus

"The low temperatures would have to remain for some time to work off the excess current storage," wrote James R. Crandell, an analyst at Barclays Capital in New York, in a note to clients today.

The number of offshore oil and natural gas operating in the U.S. fell for the first time in four weeks, led by a decline in natural gas drilling, according to data released today by Baker Hughes Inc.

gas platforms were reduced from 19 to 936, the biggest drop in a week since June. The total is down 42 percent from a peak of 1,606 in September 2008.

Wholesale natural gas at the benchmark Henry Hub in Erath, Louisiana, fell 9.55 cents, or 2.5 percent, to $ 3.7917 per million BTU in the Intercontinental Exchange.

Volume of gas futures in electronic trading on the Nymex was 258.854 as of 14:39, compared with a three-month average of 269,000. Volume was 338,358 yesterday. The open interest was 767,811 contracts, compared with three-month average of 807,000. The change has a delay of a working day in open interest information and full-volume data.