The United States Natural Gas Fund (NYSEArca: UNG) has issued its first new shares since re-opening its so-called creation window, according to a Bloomberg report.

Earlier this summer, UNG stopped issuing new shares of the fund because it did not want to increase its position in natural gas futures. It was worried about the CFTC’s stated plans to introduce position limits in energy futures later this year.

At the end of September, however, UNG officially reopened its creation window, with the caveat that any institutional investor who wanted to create new shares had to first secure privately negotiated swaps providing exposure to the natural gas market to do so. The investor would then turn those swaps over to UNG in exchange for new shares in the ETF.

Institutional investors are incented to do this because UNG has been trading at approximately a 1 percent premium to its net asset value. They can create shares at NAV using the creation window and cash in on the difference.

Some wondered if a 1 percent premium would be enough of an incentive to entice investors to search out the swaps. Apparently it was: Bloomberg says that the first order, for $79 million in shares, was processed on Friday.

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