Friday, March 6th saw the front-month NYMEX Natural Gas contract open at $3.124, $0.121 above Thursday’s closing price $3.003. Withdrawing to record the intraday low of $3.080 at 9:45AM, prices then proceeded to rally throughout the morning hours as uncertainty regarding the conflict in the Middle East outweighed weak near-term demand. Recording the intraday high of $3.280 at 12:55PM, April closed higher on Friday at $3.186; up 11.4% on the week.
The EIA Natural Gas Storage Report published Thursday posted a 132 BCF withdrawal from storage for the week ended February 27 – greater than the market estimate of a 125 BCF withdrawal. Total working gas in storage was reported as 1,886 BCF; 6.5% below this time last year and 2.2% below the five-year average.
As of 6:35AM this morning in Globex, WTI Crude was up $11.710; Natural Gas was up $0.189; Heating Oil was up $0.457; and Gasoline was up $0.254.
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