Chris Melillo , Kaye/Bassman Managing Partner, Featured In Bloomberg
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Chris Melillo , Kaye/Bassman Managing Partner, Featured In Bloomberg, Profit-Hungry Traders Prowl Local Gas Hubs
By: Naureen Malik
Plano, TX | 10/11/2017
Profit has become so much harder to come by in the huge U.S. market for natural gas that some traders are buying and selling in lesser-known local pipeline hubs, where bigger risks offer the promise of better rewards.
Futures contracts traded in New York — a benchmark for U.S. prices — are seeing fewer of the big price swings that traders crave because of a prolonged domestic glut. But that isn’t the case in regional markets like Pennsylvania, Ohio or west Texas, where Mercuria Energy America Inc., Vitol Inc. and Trafigura Trading LLC are among those increasing bets on next-day gas deliveries, data from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission show.
With more action on local markets, utilities are turning some of their regional gas traders into specialists and hiring more people to beef up their presence at individual hubs, said Christopher Melillo, managing partner at Kaye/Bassman International Corp., which recruits energy traders. Instead of focusing on the entire Southeast or Midwest, each trader might trade just one pipeline interconnect in Alabama or a Michigan city, he said.
