NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Large non-commercial traders added short contracts to
their natural gas futures positions during the week ended April 28, increasing
their net short position, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission reported
Friday.

  Speculative, or non-commercial, traders cut 398 contracts from their long
position in futures-only contracts and added 594 contracts to their short
position, resulting in a net short position of 128,979 contracts, 992 above
last week's total.

  Open interest was 645,096 contracts, 14,404 below last week's total.

  In futures and options combined, non-commercial traders were net short by
28,333 contracts, 3,326 less than the previous week.

  Commercial traders were net long in futures-only contracts by 89,300
contracts, 3,232 more than last week, after cutting long and short contracts.
Such traders decreased their long position by 3,420 contracts and cut 6,652
contracts from their short position.

                       Week Ended        Vs Previous
                        April 28            Week
NYMEX GAS FUTURES ONLY
Long
   Non-commercial       71,879              72,277
   Commercial           261,319             264,739
Short
   Non-commercial       200,858             200,264
   Commercial           172,019             178,671

NYMEX GAS FUTURES AND OPTIONS COMBINED
Long
   Non-commercial       141,694             137,851
   Commercial           326,911             334,165
Short
   Non-commercial       170,027             169,510
   Commercial           340,476             347,156


  -By Christine Buurma, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-2061;
christine.buurma@dowjones.com


  (END) Dow Jones Newswires

  05-01-09 1648ET

  Copyright (c) 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

16:48 050109

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