**Sprague Natural Gas MarketWatch will be on hiatus until the New Year**
Monday, December 22nd saw the front-month NYMEX Natural Gas contract open at $3.965, $0.019 below Friday’s closing price of $3.984. Entering the session on a downward trend as pre-market trading was emboldened by a bullish shift to early January forecasts, prices withdrew to record the intraday low of $3.797 at 10:35AM. Trading along $3.874 by midday, the contract gradually reclaimed opening price territory as weak market fundamentals dominated. Marking the intraday high of $3.971 ahead of 2:30PM, January closed lower on Monday at $3.965.
The EIA Natural Gas Storage Report published last 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 7:25AM this morning in Globex, WTI Crude was up $0.060; Natural Gas was up $0.100; Heating Oil was up $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
