Thursday, March 16th saw the front-month NYMEX Natural Gas Futures Contract open at $2.472, three cents above Wednesday’s closing price of $2.439. Ascending to the $2.500 level by 10:00AM, the contract traded sideways until the 10:30AM storage report. Plunging to the intraday low of $2.454 as the report hit the wire, prices were quick to recover as the intraday high of $2.546 was achieved forty-five minutes later. Trading within a tight band near $2.525 for the majority of the afternoon, April closed higher at $2.514.
The EIA Natural Gas Storage Report published on Thursday showed a 58 BCF withdrawal from storage for the week ended March 10 – in line with the market estimate of 53 BCF. Total working gas in storage was reported as 1,972 BCF; 35.9% above this time last year and 23.7% above the five-year average.
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