Thursday, December 18th saw the front-month NYMEX Natural Gas contract open at $4.167, $0.143 above Wednesday’s closing price of $4.024. Continuing the previous session’s oversold rally prior to the opening bell, the contract traded sideways along $4.130 leading up to the weekly storage report. Stepping lower following the slightly bearish publication hitting the wire, prices hovered near $4.065 through midday. Looking forward to short-term mild conditions, the contract withdrew for the balance of the session. Marking the intraday low of $3.889 at 1:50PM, January closed lower on Thursday at $3.908.
The EIA Natural Gas Storage Report published on Thursday posted a 167 BCF withdrawal from storage for the week ended December 12 – below the market estimate of a 180 BCF withdrawal. Total working gas in storage was reported as 3,579 BCF; 1.7% below this time last year and 0.9% above the five-year average.
As of 7:15AM this morning in Globex, WTI Crude was up $0.120; Natural Gas was up $0.126; Heating Oil was down $0.003; and Gasoline was up $0.002.
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
