| ORGANIZATION AND BUSINESS | NOTE 1 — ORGANIZATION AND BUSINESS
The United States 12 Month Natural Gas Fund, LP (“UNL”) was organized as a limited partnership under the laws of the state of Delaware on June 27, 2007. UNL is a commodity pool that issues limited partnership shares (“shares”) that may be purchased and sold on the NYSE Arca, Inc. (the “NYSE Arca”). UNL will continue in perpetuity, unless terminated sooner upon the occurrence of one or more events as described in its Third Amended and Restated Agreement of Limited Partnership dated as of December 15, 2017 (the “LP Agreement”). The investment objective of UNL 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 average of the prices of 12 futures contracts for 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 contract that is the next month contract to expire and the contracts for the following 11 consecutive months (the “Benchmark Futures Contracts”), plus interest earned on UNL’s collateral holdings, less UNL’s expenses. When calculating the daily movement of the average price of the 12 contracts, each contract month is equally weighted. UNL seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing so that the average daily percentage change in UNL's NAV for any period of 30 successive valuation days will be within plus/minus ten percent (10)% of the average daily percentage change in the price of the Benchmark Futures Contracts over the same period.
UNL’s investment objective is not for its NAV or market price of shares to equal, in dollar terms, the spot price of natural gas or any particular futures contract based on natural gas, nor is UNL’s investment objective for the percentage change in its NAV to 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 UNL, 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). UNL 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 (“OTC”) 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 September 30, 2020, UNL held 222 Futures Contracts for natural gas traded on the NYMEX and did not hold any Futures Contracts traded on ICE Futures US.
UNL commenced investment operations on November 18, 2009 and has a fiscal year ending on December 31. USCF is responsible for the management of UNL. USCF is a member of the National Futures Association (the “NFA”) and became registered as a commodity pool operator with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the “CFTC”) effective December 1, 2005 and a swaps firm on August 8, 2013.
USCF is also the general partner of the United States Oil Fund, LP (“USO”), the United States Natural Gas Fund, LP (“UNG”), the United States 12 Month Oil Fund, LP (“USL”) and the United States Gasoline Fund, LP (“UGA”), which listed their limited partnership shares on the American Stock Exchange (the “AMEX”) under the ticker symbols “USO” on April 10, 2006, “UNG” on April 18, 2007, “USL” on December 6, 2007 and “UGA” on February 26, 2008, respectively. As a result of the acquisition of the AMEX by NYSE Euronext, each of USO’s, UNG’s, USL’s and UGA’s shares commenced trading on the NYSE Arca on November 25, 2008. USCF is also the general partner of the United States Brent Oil Fund, LP (“BNO”), which listed its limited partnership shares on the NYSE Arca under the ticker symbol “BNO” on June 2, 2010. USCF previously served as the general partner for the United States Short Oil Fund, LP (“DNO”) and the United States Diesel-Heating Oil Fund, LP (“UHN”), both of which were liquidated in 2018.
USCF is also the sponsor of the United States Commodity Index Fund (“USCI”), the United States Copper Index Fund (“CPER”) and the USCF Crescent Crypto Index Fund (“XBET”), each a series of the United States Commodity Index Funds Trust (“USCIFT”). USCF previously served as the sponsor for the United States Agricultural Index Fund (“USAG”) a series of USCIFT which was liquidated in 2018. A registration statement that had been previously filed for XBET was withdrawn on June 25, 2020. USCI and CPER listed their shares on the NYSE Arca under the ticker symbols “USCI” on August 10, 2010 and “CPER” on November 15, 2011, respectively.
In addition, USCF was the sponsor of the USCF Funds Trust, a Delaware statutory trust, and each of its series, the United States 3x Oil Fund (“USOU”) and the United States 3x Short Oil Fund (“USOD”), which listed their shares on the NYSE Arca on July 20, 2017 under the ticker symbols "USOU" and "USOD", respectively. Each of USOU and USOD liquidated all of its assets and distributed cash pro rata to all remaining shareholders in December 2019.
USO, UNG, UGA, UNL, USL, BNO, USCI and CPER are referred to collectively herein as the “Related Public Funds.”
UNL issues shares to certain authorized purchasers (“Authorized Participants”) by offering baskets consisting of 50,000 shares (“Creation Baskets”) through ALPS Distributors, Inc., as the marketing agent (the “Marketing Agent”). The purchase price for a Creation Basket is based upon the NAV of a share 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.
Authorized Participants pay UNL a $350 transaction fee for each order placed to create one or more Creation Baskets or to redeem one or more baskets (“Redemption Baskets”), consisting of 50,000 shares. Shares may be purchased or sold on a nationally recognized securities exchange in smaller increments than a Creation Basket or Redemption Basket. Shares purchased or sold on a nationally recognized securities exchange are not purchased or sold at the per share NAV of UNL but rather at market prices quoted on such exchange.
In November 2009, UNL initially registered 30,000,000 shares on Form S‑1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”). On November 18, 2009, UNL listed its shares on the NYSE Arca under the ticker symbol “UNL”. On that day, UNL established its initial per share NAV by setting the price at $50.00 and issued 200,000 shares in exchange for $10,000,000. UNL also commenced investment operations on November 18, 2009, by purchasing Futures Contracts traded on the NYMEX based on natural gas. As of September 30, 2020, UNL had registered a total of 30,000,000 shares.
The accompanying unaudited condensed financial statements have been prepared in accordance with Rule 10‑01 of Regulation S-X promulgated by the SEC and, therefore, do not include all information and footnote disclosure required under generally accepted accounting principles in the United States of America (“U.S. GAAP”). The financial information included herein is unaudited; however, such financial information reflects all adjustments, consisting only of normal recurring adjustments, which are, in the opinion of USCF, necessary for the fair presentation of the condensed financial statements for the interim period. |
