Thursday, January 26th saw the February NYMEX Natural Gas Futures Contract open at $2.830, twenty-four cents below Wednesday’s closing price of $3.067. Testing 18-month lows early on, prices bounced around the $2.830 level leading up to the weekly storage report. Jumping to $2.867 as the weekly storage report hit the wire, paling in comparison to last year’s 217 BCF draw, the contract slipped to $2.761 at midday; the lowest intraday mark since late-spring 2021. Recovering into the afternoon, February marked an intraday high of $2.944 at 1:10PM and proceeded to close lower at $2.944.
The more actively traded March contract closed seven cents lower on Wednesday at $2.848.
The EIA Natural Gas Storage Report published on Thursday showed a 91 BCF withdrawal from storage for the week ended January 20 – in line with the market estimate of 87 BCF. Total working gas in storage was reported as 2,729 BCF; 4.1% above this time last year and 4.9% above the five-year average.
As of 6:15AM EST this morning in Globex, WTI Crude was up $1.24; Natural Gas was down five cents; Heating Oil was up three cents; and Gasoline was up three cents.
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