Friday, May 19th saw the front-month NYMEX Natural Gas Futures Contract open at $2.641, five cents above Thursday’s closing price of $2.592. Seeking direction early on, prices traded within an eight-cent range through 9:45AM, marking the intraday low of $2.602 along the way. Weighing market factors such as wildfires in Canada and Thursday’s bullish storage injection, the contract recovered to trade along $2.660 by 11:00AM. Ascending to mark the intraday high of $2.685 at 12:15PM, prices then pulled back to trade near $2.590 for the balance of the day. June closed lower on Friday at $2.585.
The EIA Natural Gas Storage Report published on Thursday showed a 99 BCF injection to storage for the week ended May 12 – below the market estimate of 110 BCF. Total working gas in storage was reported as 2,240 BCF; 30.3% above this time last year and 17.9% above the five-year average.
As of 7:10AM EST this morning in Globex, WTI Crude was up seven cents; Natural Gas was down six cents; Heating Oil was up slightly; and Gasoline was down slightly.
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