Thursday, March 15th saw the front-month NYMEX Natural Gas Futures Contracts open at $2.740, a penny above Wednesday’s closing price of $2.731. Climbing to the intraday high of $2.745 by 9:20AM, prices then retreated to the $2.73 mark as traders awaited the weekly storage publication. Plummeting below $2.690 as the bearish report hit the wire, the contract continued downward to cross midday near the $2.68 level. Falling to a two-week intraday low of $2.664 at 1:30PM, April closed lower on Thursday at $2.681.
The EIA Natural Gas Storage Report published on Thursday showed a 93 BCF withdrawal from storage for the week ended March 9th –below the market estimate of 100 BCF. Total working gas in storage was reported as 1,625 BCF; 29.5% below this time last year and 15.6% below the five-year average.
This morning in Globex, WTI Crude was up 16 cents; Natural Gas was down one cent; Heating Oil was up slightly; and, Gasoline was down slightly.
Natural Gas Glossary
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.