Thursday, February 25th saw the front-month NYMEX Natural Gas Futures Contract open at $2.804, a penny above Wednesday’s closing price of $2.795. Falling to an intraday low of $2.766 by 9:30AM, the contract was trading near $2.805 ahead of the weekly storage publication. Ascending to an intraday high of $2.830 as the report hit the wire at 10:30AM, prices soon returned to the $2.800 level. Despite the behemoth storage withdrawal, we’re now trading the April contract, and as weather forecasts remain bearish, the news of storage levels falling below the five-year average just wasn’t enough to support a rally. April closed lower on Thursday at $2.777.
The EIA Natural Gas Storage Report published on Thursday showed a 338 BCF withdrawal from storage for the week ended February 19th – above the market estimate expectation of 280 BCF. Total working gas in storage was reported as 1,943 BCF; 13.3% below this time last year and 7.7% below the five-year average.
As of 7:10AM EST this morning in Globex, WTI Crude was down $1.27; Natural Gas was down five cents; Heating Oil was down four cents; and Gasoline was down two cents.
Natural Gas Glossary
Natural Gas Supplier
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.
