Lanxess sees US natgas in $7-$8 range in 2006

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The chief financial officer of German chemical firm Lanxess (LXSG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said on Wednesday he expects U.S. natural gas prices to range between $7 and $8 per million British thermal units in the first half of 2006.

Lanxess, a maker of synthetic rubber, chemicals and pigments, uses the fuel to make chemicals at its U.S.-based operations.

"The $7 to $8 mmBtu will be the price in the first and second quarter," Matthias Zachert said at the Reuters Chemicals Summit.

The forecast matched the range provided by analysts in a recent Reuters survey. Prices were slightly higher in 2005, averaging a record $8.81, more than four times the $2 average seen throughout the 1990s.

Looking ahead, Zachert said prices for natural gas, the primary raw material in most U.S.-made chemicals, would rise again in the second half of 2006.

"We will see higher prices in the third and fourth quarter," he said, adding that they would not reach peaks seen last year after Hurricanes Rita and Katrina tore through the Gulf of Mexico, cutting U.S. natural gas output by 550 billion cubic feet, or 3 percent.

Following the storms, natural gas prices hit an all-time high of more than $15 mmBtu in mid-December 2005.