Thursday, August 22nd saw the front-month NYMEX Natural Gas Futures Contract open at $2.194, just below Tuesday’s closing price of $2.177. Carrying over the previous day’s weather-induced bearish momentum, prices tallied the intraday high of $2.125 within minutes of the open. Overlooking a decline in production, the contract was trading along $2.095 ahead of the weekly storage report. Posting additional losses after the bearish injection hit the wire, prices fell as low as $2.031 at 11:30AM. Looking rather anemic throughout the afternoon, September closed lower on Thursday at $2.053.
The EIA Natural Gas Storage Report published last Thursday showed a 35 BCF injection to storage for the week ended August 16 – above the market estimate of a 25 BCF injection. Total working gas in storage was reported as 3,299 BCF; 7.2% above this time last year and 12.6% above the five-year average.
As of 7:45AM EST this morning in Globex, WTI Crude was up $1.29 cents; Natural Gas was down four cents; Heating Oil was up three cents; and Gasoline was up two cents.
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