Natural Gas And ETF Could Rise This Winter

Natural gas has been the choice among exchange traded fund (ETF) investors, as call options have been put into place in anticipation of the prices going up.

Doris Frankel for Reuters reports that shares of United States Natural Gas (UNG) saw option investors betting that natural gas prices will spike up within the next few months.

The ETF, which tracks natural gas prices through futures and forward contracts, posted a 52-week low of $29.02 on Friday. The ETF has shed 54% from its July high.

Investors often turn to equity call options allowing them to buy the company’s stock at a given price and time, to speculate on share price appreciation.

Over in New York, officials are exploring whether it is possible to drill safely for natural gas without seeping into water supplies.

High on our list of concerns is whether the used water - some of it tainted with toxic chemicals - will later seep into streams, rivers and deep water wells, placing New York City’s municipal water supplies at risk. This speculation is in response to the Marcellus Shale, a huge deposit of natural gas way beneath the earth’s surface, reports The New York Times.

Consumers in some areas may see their natural gas bills rise up to 38% this winter, if West Virginia is any indication. Up to 13 of West Virginia’s state gas companies will be getting a rate increase, which is passed on to the consumer.

Proposed increases for the state’s seven largest natural gas companies ranged from 38% to 8.6%, according numbers provided by the Consumer Advocate Division, reports Sarah K. Winn for The Charleston Gazette. Just because you do not live in West Virginia does not mean you are safe from a position such as this. This could happen in any state.

UNG is down 19.4% year-to-date.

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