Thursday, December 15th saw the January NYMEX Natural Gas Futures Contract open at $6.464, three cents above Wednesday’s closing price of $6.430. Recording the intraday low of $6.454 soon after the open, prices rose to the $6.700 level ahead of the weekly storage report at 10:30AM. Retreating below $6.500 in the hour following the report, the contact surged higher into the after as heating demand continues to fuel the latest rally. Recording a two-week intraday high of $7.036 by 1:15PM, January closed higher on Thursday at $6.970.
The EIA Natural Gas Storage Report published on Thursday showed a 50 BCF withdrawal from storage for the week ended December 9 – in line with the market estimate of 56 BCF. Total working gas in storage was reported as 3,412 BCF; 0.5% below this time last year and 0.4% below the five-year average.
As of 7:15AM EST this morning in Globex, WTI Crude was down $1.57; Natural Gas was down 39 cents; Heating Oil was down six cents; and Gasoline was down three cents.
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