US natural gas weekly draw just above target at 84 bcf

barani krishnan

Investing.com — Utilities last week withdrew slightly higher-than-expected levels of natural gas from U.S. stockpiles, the Energy Information Administration said Thursday’s inventory report could weigh heavily on the gas bull market. said to be of low quality.

In the week ending March 3, 84 billion cubic feet were withdrawn for heating and power generation. This slightly exceeded the average analyst spending forecast of 80 bcf tracked by Investing.com. Gas consumption for the past three weeks has been below seasonal norms, including 81 bcf seen the week before 24 February.

Henry Hub’s share price on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell 0.3 cents (0.1%) to $2.548 per mmBtu (million British Thermal Units metric), about 20 minutes after the stock report was released. Prior to the report, gas for April had him trading as high as $2.643.

With a mostly mild winter in 2022/23, US heating demand is significantly lower than normal, with more gas stored than originally thought.

In response to warmer and lackluster storage demand, gas prices plummeted from a 14-year high of $10 per mmBtu in August, reaching $7 per mmBtu in December and nearly $2 per mmBtu for the next month. It traded in the mid-dollar range.