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ORGANIZATION AND BUSINESS
 12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2012
Organization and Business [Abstract]  
Organization and Business

NOTE 1 - ORGANIZATION AND BUSINESS

 

The United States 12 Month Natural Gas Fund, LP (“US12NG”) was organized as a limited partnership under the laws of the state of Delaware on June 27, 2007. US12NG is a commodity pool that issues limited partnership units (“units”) that may be purchased and sold on the NYSE Arca, Inc. (the “NYSE Arca”). US12NG will continue in perpetuity, unless terminated sooner upon the occurrence of one or more events as described in its Second Amended and Restated Agreement of Limited Partnership dated as of March 1, 2013 (the “LP Agreement”). The investment objective of US12NG is for the daily changes in percentage terms of its units’ per unit 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 average of the prices of 12 futures contracts on natural gas traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange (the “NYMEX”), consisting of the near month contract to expire and the contracts for the following 11 months for a total of 12 consecutive months’ contracts, except when the near month contract is within two weeks of expiration, in which case it will be measured by the futures contracts that are the next month contract to expire and the contracts for the following 11 consecutive months (the “Benchmark Futures Contracts”), less US12NG’s expenses. It is not the intent of US12NG to be operated in a fashion such that the per unit 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 US12NG to be operated in a fashion such that its per unit NAV will reflect the percentage change of the price of any particular futures contract as measured over a time period greater than one day. United States Commodity Funds LLC (“USCF”), the general partner of US12NG, 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). US12NG accomplishes its objective through 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 other natural gas-related investments such as cash-settled options on Futures Contracts, forward contracts for natural gas, cleared swap contracts and over-the-counter transactions that are based on the price of natural gas, crude oil and other petroleum-based fuels, Futures Contracts and indices based on the foregoing (collectively, “Other Natural Gas-Related Investments”). As of December 31, 2012, US12NG held 1,197 Futures Contracts for natural gas traded on the NYMEX and did not hold any Futures Contracts traded on ICE Futures.

 

US12NG commenced investment operations on November 18, 2009 and has a fiscal year ending on December 31. USCF is responsible for the management of US12NG. USCF is a member of the National Futures Association (the “NFA”) and became a commodity pool operator registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the “CFTC”) effective December 1, 2005. USCF is also the general partner of the United States Oil Fund, LP (“USOF”), the United States Natural Gas Fund, LP (“USNG”), the United States 12 Month Oil Fund, LP (“US12OF”), the United States Gasoline Fund, LP (“UGA”) and the United States Diesel-Heating Oil Fund, LP (formerly, the United States Heating Oil Fund, LP) (“USDHO”), which listed their limited partnership units on the AMEX under the ticker symbols “USO” on April 10, 2006, “UNG” on April 18, 2007, “USL” on December 6, 2007, “UGA” on February 26, 2008 and “UHN” on April 9, 2008, respectively. As a result of the acquisition of the American Stock Exchange (the “AMEX”) by NYSE Euronext, each of USOF’s, USNG’s, US12OF’s, UGA’s and USDHO’s units commenced trading on the NYSE Arca on November 25, 2008. USCF is also the general partner of the United States Short Oil Fund, LP (“USSO”) and the United States Brent Oil Fund, LP (“USBO”), which listed their limited partnership units on the NYSE Arca under the ticker symbols “DNO” on September 24, 2009 and “BNO” on June 2, 2010, respectively. USCF is also the sponsor of the United States Commodity Index Fund (“USCI”), the United States Copper Index Fund (“CPER”), the United States Agriculture Index Fund (“USAG”) and the United States Metals Index Fund (“USMI”), each a series of the United States Commodity Index Funds Trust. USCI, CPER, USAG and USMI listed their units on the NYSE Arca under the ticker symbol “USCI” on August 10, 2010, “CPER” on November 15, 2011, “USAG” on April 13, 2012 and “USMI” on June 19, 2012, respectively. All funds listed previously are referred to collectively herein as the “Related Public Funds.” USCF has also filed registration statements to register units of the United States Sugar Fund (“USSF”), the United States Natural Gas Double Inverse Fund (“UNGD”), the United States Gasoil Fund (“USGO”) and the United States Asian Commodities Basket Fund (“UAC”), each a series of the United States Commodity Funds Trust I, and the US Golden Currency Fund (“HARD”), a series of the United States Currency Funds Trust.

 

Effective February 29, 2012, US12NG issues units to certain authorized purchasers (“Authorized Purchasers”) by offering baskets consisting of 50,000 units (“Creation Baskets”) through ALPS Distributors, Inc. as the marketing agent (the “Marketing Agent”). Prior to February 29, 2012, US12NG issued units to Authorized Purchasers by offering baskets consisting of 100,000 units through the Marketing Agent. The purchase price for a Creation Basket is based upon the NAV of a unit calculated shortly after the close of the core trading session on the NYSE Arca on the day the order to create the basket is properly received.

 

From July 1, 2011 through December 31, 2012 (and continuing at least through May 1, 2013), the applicable transaction fee paid by Authorized Purchasers is $350 to US12NG for each order they place to create or redeem one or more baskets (“Redemption Baskets”); prior to July 1, 2011, this fee was $1,000. Units may be purchased or sold on a nationally recognized securities exchange in smaller increments than a Creation Basket or Redemption Basket. Units purchased or sold on a nationally recognized securities exchange are not purchased or sold at the per unit NAV of US12NG but rather at market prices quoted on such exchange.

 

In November 2009, US12NG initially registered 30,000,000 units on Form S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”). On November 18, 2009, US12NG listed its units on the NYSE Arca under the ticker symbol “UNL”. On that day, US12NG established its initial per unit NAV by setting the price at $50.00 and issued 200,000 units in exchange for $10,001,000. US12NG also commenced investment operations on November 18, 2009 by purchasing Futures Contracts traded on the NYMEX based on natural gas. As of December 31, 2012, US12NG had registered a total of 30,000,000 units.