Friday, August 8th saw the front-month NYMEX Natural Gas contract open at $3.048, $0.019 below Thursday’s closing price of $3.067. Largely unchanged overnight, traders are choosing to focus on the impending shoulder season and strong production instead of forecasted increased cooling demand the previous session’s bullish storage miss. Recording the intraday high of $3.074 at 9:25AM, the contract traded sideways near $3.005 through midday. Finding a bottom at the intraday low of $2.960, September closed lower on Friday at $2.990; down 3% on the week.
The EIA Natural Gas Storage Report published last Thursday posted a 7 BCF injection to storage for the week ended August 1 – above the market estimate of an 11 BCF injection. Total working gas in storage was reported as 3,130 BCF; 4.2% below this time last year and 5.9% above the five-year average.
As of 7:15AM this morning in Globex, WTI Crude was up $0.110; Natural Gas was down $0.067; Heating Oil was down $0.013; and Gasoline was up $0.003.
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
