Playing a waiting game

With energy – and particularly natural gas – costs on the rise, are end-users finally coming to terms with the importance of hedging or are they still waiting to get burned before they enter the hedging market? Kevin Foster reports

Now is not a good time to be a large purchaser of energy. US natural gas prices hit $6 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) in February, and crude oil continues to rise with fears of an attack on Iraq. Unhedged companies face the risk of huge losses.

End-users are increasingly recognising the need for energy price risk management, says Mike Gettings, executive vice-president at energy management firm Pace Global in Fairfax, Virginia. In the industrial and commercial sector, Pace works