nearly one-quarter of the nation’s energy consumption. Natural
gas is used by individual households, small businesses, and
large industries. The total domestic demand for natural gas is
highly seasonal, this is mainly because natural gas is the
primary heating fuel for homes in the winter months.23 “During
summer months, when supply exceeds demand, natural gas
prices fall, and the excess supply is placed into underground
storage reservoirs. During the winter, when demand for natural
gas exceeds production and prices increase, natural gas is
removed from underground storage.” (Senate Report, p. 17).
In many commodity markets, the storage costs of a commodity
are priced into futures contracts. Theoretically, the price of a
futures contract is given as Ft
= St
e(c+r)(T–t)
, where S is the spot
price of the commodity, c is the continuously compounded
storage costs of the commodity, r is the opportunity cost of
money or the interest rate, and T – t is the time until the futures
contract matures