Natural Gas Overview: Prices and Storage Update

Thursday, July 16th saw the front-month NYMEX Natural Gas contract open at $2.942, $0.018 above Wednesday’s closing price of $2.924. Trading along $2.940 leading up to the 10:30AM publication, marking the intraday high of $2.968 at 10:25AM, the contract posted a steep decline following the as-expected storage build. Recording a fresh two-month intraday low of $2.823 at 11:05AM, steady production, easing cooling demand and reaching the psychological 3,000 BCF storage level, prices traded sideways into the afternoon. August closed lower on Thursday at $2.858.

The EIA Natural Gas Storage Report published on Thursday posted a 41 BCF injection to storage for the week ended July 10 – in line with the market estimate of 41 BCF. Working gas in storage was reported as 3,024 BCF; 0.7% below this time last year and 6.4% above the five-year average.

In Globex, as of 8:25AM this morning, WTI Crude was up $1.880; Natural Gas was down $0.003; Heating Oil was up $0.086; and Gasoline was up $0.072.

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