Friday, March 14th saw the front-month NYMEX Natural Gas Futures Contract open at $4.028, down $0.083 compared to Wednesday’s closing price of $4.111. Recording the intraday low of $3.964 at 9:55AM, seasonal forecasts for the coming weeks sapped demand from the market. Conversely, strong LNG demand has helped to buoy the market. Prices rose into the afternoon to record the intraday high of $4.141 at 1:15PM. April closed lower on Friday at $4.104; down 6.7% on the week.
The EIA Natural Gas Storage Report published last Thursday posted a 62 BCF withdrawal from storage for the week ended February 28 – above the market estimate of a 48 BCF withdrawal. Total working gas in storage was reported as 1,698 BCF; 27.0% below this time last year and 11.9% below the five-year average.
As of 6:55AM this morning in Globex, WTI Crude was up $0.830; Natural Gas was up $0.080; Heating Oil was up $0.029; and Gasoline was up $0.028.
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