Natural Gas Trends: Weekly Analysis and Forecast

Friday, May 9^th saw the front-month NYMEX Natural Gas contract open at $3.713, $0.121 cents above Thursday’s closing price of $3.592. Looking past the bearish storage report from the previous session, markets looked to the back half of May where forecasts are calling for increased cooling demand, as prices rose to tally an intraday high of $3.813 at 11:15AM. Trading sideways heading into 2:30PM, June closed higher on Friday at $3.795; up 4.5% on the week.

The EIA Natural Gas Storage Report published last Thursday posted a 104 BCF injection to storage for the week ended May 2 – below the market estimate of a 97 BCF injection. Total working gas in storage was reported as 2,145 BCF; 16.1% below this time last year and 1.4% above the five-year average.

As of 6:30AM this morning in Globex, WTI Crude was up $1.900; Natural Gas was up $0.033; Heating Oil was up $0.049; and Gasoline was up $0.041.

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

This market update is provided for information purposes only and is not intended as advice on any transaction nor is it a solicitation to buy or sell commodities. Sprague makes no representations or warranties with respect to the contents of such news, including, without limitation, its accuracy and completeness, and Sprague shall not be responsible for the consequence of reliance upon any opinions, statements, projections and analyses presented herein or for any omission or error in fact. The views expressed in this material are through the period as of the date of this report and are subject to change based on market and other conditions. This document contains certain statements that may be deemed forward-looking statements. Please note that any such statements are not guarantees of any future performance or results and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected. The whole or any part of this work may not be reproduced, copied, or transmitted or any of its contents disclosed to third parties without Sprague’s express written consent.