NYMEX natgas spec net short positions hit record

NEW YORK, March 14 (Reuters) - Noncommercial or speculative investment funds on the New York Mercantile Exchange increased their combined net short natural gas futures and options exposure to a record high for the week ended March 11, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said in a report on Friday.

In combined futures and options, the report showed funds added 15,267 contracts to their net short positions, increasing the total to a record 181,217 contracts.

The gain eclipsed the previous record for net short futures and options held by funds of 177,691 contracts set the week ended Feb. 26.

In futures only, funds cut net shorts by 1,735 contracts to 74,300 versus 76,035 net shorts in the previous week's report.

Noncommercial speculative traders trimmed their total short futures exposure by 18,284 contracts to 209,581, while they shaved 16,549 longs, decreasing total length to 135,281 lots.

Net short futures-only positions held by funds hit an all-time peak of 112,546 during the week ended Dec. 24, 2007.

The largest net long futures position ever held by funds was 55,495 in August 1999.

For the week ended March 11, total natural gas futures open interest, or the number of longs or shorts outstanding, fell 15,056 contracts to 925,085.

Traders noted that despite their record net short futures and options exposure, funds were still net long Henry Hub natural gas swaps, raising net length in the latest week to an equivalent of about 206,312 Henry Hub futures contracts.

The Henry Hub natural gas swap contract is one-fourth the size of the Henry Hub futures contract, or 2,500 mmBtus. (Reporting by Joe Silha; Editing by Christian Wiessner)