Natural Gas Prices Rise Amid Summer Demand

Friday, May 2^nd saw the front-month NYMEX Natural Gas contract open at $3.499, $0.020 cents above Thursday’s closing price of $3.479. Recording the intraday low of $3.487 within minutes of the opening bell, the contract plodded higher throughout the session as traders looked past the current shoulder season to summer demand expectations. Marking the intraday high of $3.638 at midday, June closed higher on Friday at $3.630.

The EIA Natural Gas Storage Report published on Thursday posted a 107 BCF injection to storage for the week ended April 25 – below the market estimate of a 116 BCF injection. Total working gas in storage was reported as 2,041 BCF; 17.6% below this time last year and 0.2% below the five-year average.

As of 6:50AM this morning in Globex, WTI Crude was down $0.920; Natural Gas was down $0.067; Heating Oil was down $0.006; and Gasoline was down $0.011.

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