Thursday, June 8th saw the front-month NYMEX Natural Gas Futures Contract open at $2.334, just above Wednesday’s closing price of $2.329. Trading along $2.320 heading into the weekly storage publication, prices briefly jumped to the intraday of $2.380 as the bullish report hit the wire. Retreating to the $2.300 level in the following minutes, traders came to realize that the lower-than-expected injection was due to a reclassification of working gas to base gas. Crossing midday at $2.298, the contract regained its footing throughout the afternoon to close higher on Thursday at $2.352.
The EIA Natural Gas Storage Report published on Thursday showed a 104 BCF injection to storage for the week ended June 2 – below the market estimate of 117 BCF. This gap in expectations vs. the published injection can be attributed to a 14 BCF reclassification of working gas to base gas. Total working gas in storage was reported as 2,550 BCF; 28.3% above this time last year and 16.1% above the five-year average.
As of 7:00AM EST this morning in Globex, WTI Crude was up 16 cents; Natural Gas was down five cents; Heating Oil was up slightly; and Gasoline was up one cent.
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.