Friday, March 24th saw the front-month NYMEX Natural Gas Futures Contract open at $2.174, two cents above Thursday’s closing price of $2.154. In a rather balance day of trading, the contract fluctuated within a tight band near the $2.200 level for the majority of the day. Lacking any material market-movers, it’s worth noting that within the next two weeks we could start to see injections again, based on five-year historical averages. Marking the intraday low of $2.166 at 9:30AM and the intraday high of $2.238 at 2:20PM, April closed higher on Friday at $2.216; down 5% on the week.
The EIA Natural Gas Storage Report published on Thursday showed a 72 BCF withdrawal from storage for the week ended March 17 – in line with the market estimate of 69 BCF. Total working gas in storage was reported as 1,900 BCF; 36.1% above this time last year and 22.7% above the five-year average.
As of 7:00AM EST this morning in Globex, WTI Crude was up 70 cents; Natural Gas was down nine cents; Heating Oil was unchanged; and Gasoline was unchanged.
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