Natural Gas: Understanding Recent Price Movements

Monday, March 2nd saw the front-month NYMEX Natural Gas contract open at $3.026, $0.167 above Friday’s closing price $2.859. Recording the intraday high of $3.026 within minutes of the opening bell, prices jumped higher over the weekend in response to rising geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. Trending lower through the morning to record the intraday low of $2.941 at 11:45AM, the contract posted a cautious rally into the afternoon to see April close higher on Monday at $2.960.

The EIA Natural Gas Storage Report published last Thursday posted a 52 BCF withdrawal from storage for the week ended February 20 – above the market estimate of a 41 BCF withdrawal. Total working gas in storage was reported as 2,018 BCF; 7.5% below this time last year and 0.3% below the five-year average.

As of 7:50AM this morning in Globex, WTI Crude was up $4.920; Natural Gas was up $0.141; Heating Oil was up $0.381; and Gasoline was up $0.124.

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