Wednesday, February 4th saw the front-month NYMEX Natural Gas contract open at $3.409, $0.098 above Tuesday’s closing price of $3.311. Climbing early on to record the intraday high of $3.548 at 9:25AM, analysts attributed the recent upward momentum to bargain-buying and positioning ahead of the possibly historic storage pull. Falling to the intraday low of $3.386 at 10:05AM, the contract traded within a tight band near $3.470 into the afternoon. March closed higher on Wednesday at $3.465.
The EIA Natural Gas Storage Report is due out Thursday at 10:30AM. The report is expected to show a 375 BCF withdrawal from storage for the week ended January 30. This compares to a 174 BCF withdrawal this time last year and a five-year average withdrawal amount of 190 BCF.
As of 7:15AM this morning in Globex, WTI Crude was up $0.250; Natural Gas was up $0.052; Heating Oil was down $0.033; and Gasoline was down $0.003.
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