Since most consumers of natural gas do not have the ability to store it, they...

Since most consumers of natural gas do not have the ability to store it, they contract with gas suppliers to receive a flow of natural gas equal to a specific number of MMBT's per day (MMBT is millions of British Termal Units, the unit in which gas futures are quoted on the U.S. markets). To protect against price increases with a bank, the natural gas consumer, concerned with the average price over the course of the month, will use the following contracts: