The United States Natural Gas Fund, LP (“UNG”) is a Delaware limited
partnership organized on September 11, 2006. UNG maintains its main business
office at 1999 Harrison Street, Suite 1530, Oakland, California 94612. UNG is
a commodity pool that issues limited partnership interests (“shares”)
traded on the NYSE Arca, Inc. (the “NYSE Arca”). It operates pursuant
to the terms of the Fourth Amended and Restated Agreement of Limited Partnership
dated as of March 1, 2013 (as amended from time to time, the “LP Agreement”),
which grants full management control to its general partner, United States Commodity
Funds LLC (“USCF”).
The investment objective of UNG is for the daily changes in percentage terms
of its shares’ per share net asset value (“NAV”) to reflect
the daily changes in percentage terms of the spot price of natural gas delivered
at the Henry Hub, Louisiana, as measured by the daily changes in the price of
the futures contract for natural gas traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange
(the “NYMEX”), that is the near month contract to expire, except
when the near month contract is within two weeks of expiration, in which case
it will be measured by the futures contract that is the next month contract
to expire, less UNG’s expenses. It is not the intent of UNG to be operated
in a fashion such that the per share NAV will equal, in dollar terms, the spot
price of natural gas or any particular futures contract based on natural gas.
It is not the intent of UNG to be operated in a fashion such that its per share
NAV will reflect the percentage change of the price of any particular futures
contract as measured over a time period greater than one day. USCF believes
that it is not practical to manage the portfolio to achieve such an investment
goal when investing in Futures Contracts (as defined below) and Other Natural
Gas-Related Investments (as defined below). UNG’s shares began trading
on April 18, 2007. USCF is the general partner of UNG and is responsible for
the management of UNG.
USCF is a single member limited liability company that was formed in the state
of Delaware on May 10, 2005. USCF maintains its main business office at 1999
Harrison Street, Suite 1530, Oakland, California 94612. USCF is a wholly-owned
subsidiary of Wainwright Holdings, Inc., a Delaware corporation (“Wainwright”).
Mr. Nicholas Gerber (discussed below) controls Wainwright by virtue of his ownership
or control of a majority of Wainwright’s shares. Wainwright is a holding
company that currently holds both USCF, as well as USCF Advisers LLC, an investment
adviser registered under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, as amended. USCF
Advisers LLC serves as the investment adviser for the Stock Split Index Fund,
a series of the USCF ETF Trust. USCF ETF Trust is registered under the Investment
Company Act of 1940, as amended (the “1940 Act”). The Board of Trustees
for the USCF ETF Trust consists of different independent trustees than those
independent directors who serve on the Board of Directors of USCF. USCF is a
member of the National Futures Association (the “NFA”) and registered
as a commodity pool operator (“CPO”) with the Commodity Futures
Trading Commission (the “CFTC”) on December 1, 2005 and as a Swaps
Firm on August 8, 2013.
USCF also serves as general partner or sponsor of the United States Oil Fund,
LP (“USO”), the United States 12 Month Oil Fund, LP (“USL”),
the United States Gasoline Fund, LP (“UGA”), the United States Diesel-Heating
Oil Fund, LP (“UHN”), the United States Short Oil Fund, LP (“DNO”),
the United States 12 Month Natural Gas Fund, LP (“UNL”), the United
States Brent Oil Fund, LP (“BNO”), the United States Commodity Index
Fund (“USCI”), the United States Copper Index Fund (“CPER”),
and the United States Agriculture Index Fund (“USAG”). USO, USL,
UGA, UHN, DNO, UNL, BNO, USCI, CPER and USAG are actively operating funds and
all are listed on the NYSE Arca and referred to collectively herein as the “Related
Public Funds.” The Related Public Funds are subject to reporting requirements
under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (“Exchange Act”).
For more information about each of the Related Public Funds, investors in UNG
may call 1.800.920.0259 or visit www.unitedstatescommodityfunds.com or the Securities
and Exchange Commission’s (“SEC”) website at www.sec.gov.
An investment in the shares provides a means for diversifying an investor’s
portfolio or hedging exposure to changes in natural gas prices. An investment
in the shares allows both retail and institutional investors to easily gain
this exposure to the natural gas market in a transparent, cost-effective manner.
The net assets of UNG consist primarily of investments in futures contracts
for natural gas, crude oil, diesel-heating oil, gasoline, and other petroleum-based
fuels that are traded on the NYMEX, ICE Futures or other U.S. and foreign exchanges
(collectively, “Futures Contracts”) and, to a lesser extent, in
order to comply with regulatory requirements or in view of market conditions,
Other Natural Gas-Related (as defined below) investments such as cash-settled
options on Futures Contracts, forward contracts for natural gas, cleared swap
contracts and non-exchange traded over-the-counter (“OTC”) transactions
that are based on the price of natural gas, oil and other petroleum-based fuels,
Futures Contracts and indices based on the foregoing (collectively, “Other
Natural Gas-Related Investments”). Market conditions that USCF currently
anticipates could cause UNG to invest in Other Natural Gas-Related Investments
include those allowing UNG to obtain greater liquidity or to execute transactions
with more favorable pricing. For convenience and unless otherwise specified,
Futures Contracts and Other Natural Gas-Related Investments collectively are
referred to as “Natural Gas Interests” in this annual report on
Form 10-K. UNG invests substantially the entire amount of its assets in Futures
Contracts while supporting such investments by holding the amounts of its margin,
collateral and other requirements relating to these obligations in short-term
obligations of the United States of two years or less (“Treasuries”),
cash and cash equivalents. The daily holdings of UNG are available on UNG’s
website at www.unitedstatescommodityfunds.com.
