Thursday, January 30th saw the front-month NYMEX Natural Gas Futures Contract open at $3.155, down $0.015 compared to Wednesday’s closing price of $3.170. Trading along the $3.130 mark leading up to the weekly storage publication, prices briefly jumped to an intraday high of $3.171. With the historic storage pull preemptively priced into the market, the contract then withdrew into the afternoon as traders focused on the impending bearish temperatures. Marking an eight-week intraday low of $3.036 at 1:55PM, March closed lower on Thursday at $3.047.
The EIA Natural Gas Storage Report published on Thursday showed a 321 BCF withdrawal from storage for the week ended January 24 – in line with the market estimate of a 320 BCF withdrawal. Total working gas in storage was reported as 2,571 BCF; 5.3% below this time last year and 4.1% above the five-year average.
As of 6:00AM this morning in Globex, WTI Crude was down $0.230; Natural Gas was up $0.023; Heating Oil was up $0.022; and Gasoline was up $0.001.
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