Thursday, September 24th saw the front-month NYMEX Natural Gas contract open at $3.001, $0.022 below Wednesday’s closing price of $3.023. Trading sideways near $3.005 through the day’s opening hour, marking the intraday low of $2.992 at 9:45AM, prices spiked upwards as the weekly storage report hit the wire. Despite falling in line with expectations, though historically bullish, the latest publication sent the contract skyward to cross midday at $3.231. Monitoring expected heating demand and the impending October contract expiration, October achieved a 14-month intraday high of $3.317 at 1:45PM, ultimately closing higher on Thursday at $3.297
The EIA Natural Gas Storage Report published last Thursday posted a 53 BCF injection to storage for the week ended September 18 – in line with the market estimate of 56 BCF. Working gas in storage was reported as 3,351 BCF; 4.2% below this time last year and 2.9% above the five-year average.
In Globex, as of 8:05AM this morning, WTI Crude was down $2.190; Natural Gas was down $0.150; Heating Oil was down $0.040; and Gasoline was down $0.108.
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
