Thursday, February 19th saw the front-month NYMEX Natural Gas contract open at $3.076, $0.065 above Wednesday’s closing price $3.011. Achieving the intraday high of $3.095 by 9:25AM, prices were trading along $3.070 leading up to the weekly storage publication. Slipping to as low as $2.995 following the EIA report, the contract had trouble regaining its footing in the afternoon as traders looked by near-term heating demand to the impending thaw. Marking the intraday low of $2.989 ahead of 2:30PM, March closed lower on Thursday at $2.996.
The EIA Natural Gas Storage Report published on Thursday posted a 144 BCF withdrawal from storage for the week ended February 13 – below the market estimate of a 150 BCF withdrawal. Total working gas in storage was reported as 2,070 BCF; 2.8% below this time last year and 5.6% below the five-year average.
As of 6:45AM this morning in Globex, WTI Crude was down $0.070; Natural Gas was down $0.038 Heating Oil was up $0.010; and Gasoline was up $0.004.
For access to Sprague’s full Natural Gas Market Watch Report including commentary not posted here, please send your request to natgas@spragueenergy.com or call 1-855-466-2842
