Friday, July 17th saw the front-month NYMEX Natural Gas contract open at $2.879, $0.021 above Thursday’s closing price of $2.858. Climbing to trade along $2.900 by 9:15AM, buyers stepped in overnight to take advantage of the recently diminished contract, having marked a two-month intraday low on Thursday. Crossing midday at $2.888, forecasts for elevated cooling demand drove prices to an intraday high of $2.926 at 1:45PM. August closed higher on Friday at $2.911.
The EIA Natural Gas Storage Report published last 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 7:40AM this morning, WTI Crude was down $2.060; Natural Gas was down $0.070; Heating Oil was down $0.060; and Gasoline was down $0.045.
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