Natural Gas Trading Like A Pro
I know personally and I have worked with a good number of Natural Gas Traders over the years and, if you ask me, Natural Gas Trading is an art. In the case of a physical trader who has both a wholesale and retail position to cover, this requires a real-time understanding of projected end-user obligations alongside supply to determine what to buy and what to deliver based on a retail position for a given city gate. Also of paramount importance is visibility to capacity for any given pipe, enabling identification of any restrictions in meeting those obligations and access to accurate forecasts for the retail positions to know what to plan for in the future.
Natural Gas trading reminds me of a golf lesson I once took, where the Pro coached me on my swing, “You need to get several things right simultaneously in order to hit the ball straight.” he said. Yup, that’s Gas Trading. And, like professional golf where bad swings can cost players thousands, if not millions of dollars, Natural Gas Traders who get it wrong have an immediate negative impact on the business bottom line.
A big difference I see between professional golfers and Natural Gas Traders is that pro golfers always work with the latest and greatest tools of the trade … precision clubs with grips tailored to individual preference, advanced rangefinders, Pro VI 2023 balls, and more. Natural Gas Traders, on the other hand, commonly work with systems that are slow, complicated, and do more to get in the way of their job than enable success. Multi-commodity ETRM systems and/or spreadsheets are commonly the tools of the trade; neither of which enable speed, agility or reliable, real-time data a Natural Gas Trader requires to do her / his job. For those of you who can relate to this, it’s high time you put away those wooden shafts and replace your scuffed range balls with state-of-the-art Natural Gas trading tooling that will enable your and your company’s success.
Software specifically designed for natural gas trading will make your life easier:
- Enabling you to capture your most complex deals, such as multilocation with deal or location level pricing, buybacks / keep wholes, and triggers
- Eliminating your existing system workarounds and spreadsheet limitations
- Centralizing your data, enabling fast, efficient, and accurate reporting – e.g., Physical position, Mark-to-Market, Price Exposure, Profit and Loss
- Improving communications between scheduling and trading by establishing trader intent – traders can earmark purchases for storage, a particular delivery point, or other purpose
- For more simple physical deals or financials, you can:
- Utilize a rapid deal entry blotter that auto populates common fields for quick and efficient deal capture
- Leverage easy copy functionality for new deal creation based on existing transactions
- Enjoy fast system response time thanks to dedicated natural gas functionality vs. multi-commodity overhead
- Import your ICE trades so all transactions can be viewed within a single system
- And for organizations with retail operations, you can access the data that is most important to you such as Aggregate retail obligations by city gate vs. supply, scheduling activity, and storage
Isn’t it time you retired the tired old tooling that’s been like an impassable water hazard and upgraded to the most advanced capabilities, designed specifically for natural gas trading? We think so and are standing by for your no obligation fitting. We’ll even throw in a dozen practice balls.
LDCs, Marketers, Pipelines, Producers, and Utilities face increasing competitive and compliance pressures, requiring increased operational efficiency, data integrity and process improvement. Their operational systems must support this, but most don’t. Engage us and we’ll show you how to make a breakthrough. It’s what we do for natural gas companies, and we are experts in our field.
nGenue enables Natural Gas Operational Excellence!
~Ken
