Monday, March 24th saw the front-month NYMEX Natural Gas Futures Contract open at $3.940, down $0.040 compared to Friday’s closing price of $3.980. Marking the intraday high of $3.906 at 9:30AM and the intraday low of $3.906 nearly an hour later, warming weather forecasts over the weekend applied bearish pressure throughout the session. With the April contract settlement set for later this week and production slightly higher, April closed lower on Monday at $3.914.
The EIA Natural Gas Storage Report published last Thursday posted a 9 BCF injection to storage for the week ended March 14 – above the market estimate of a 2 BCF withdrawal. Total working gas in storage was reported as 1,707 BCF; 26.8% below this time last year and 10.0% below the five-year average.
As of 7:35AM this morning in Globex, WTI Crude was up $0.420; Natural Gas was up $0.035; Heating Oil was up $0.019; and Gasoline was up $0.009.
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