The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported Thursday morning that U.S. natural gas stocks decreased by 160 billion cubic feet for the week ending February 6. Estimates called for drawdown of 166 billion to 170 billion cubic feet. The five-year average draw is about 180 billion cubic feet, and during the same period last year the draw was 230 billion cubic feet.

Natural gas futures for March delivery traded down about 0.1% in advance of the EIA’s report, at around $2.80 per million BTUs, and pulled back to around $2.73 immediately following the report. Natural gas futures have risen from around $2.58 per million BTUs since last week. The 52-week low for natural gas futures is $2.57. One year ago the price for a million BTUs was near $5.

Natural gas posted a weekly high of around $2.85 on Wednesday as cold weather has again moved into the Northeast. Another blast of cold air is expected to move across the north-central U.S. Thursday and across the eastern U.S. Friday, with more cold weather due over the weekend pushing down into the south. Warm weather west of the Mississippi is also expected to give way to colder temperatures next week.

Stockpiles are about 31.4% above their levels of a year ago and about 0.5% below the five-year average. The relatively milder weather so far in the heating season has curtailed stockpile drawdowns, compared with last year’s much colder weather.

The EIA reported that U.S. working stocks of natural gas totaled 2.27 trillion cubic feet, about 11 billion cubic feet below the five-year average of 2.28 trillion cubic feet and 542 billion cubic feet above last year’s total for the same period. Working gas in storage totaled 1.73 trillion cubic feet for the same period a year ago.

Stockpiles of natural gas continue to grow — up 54 billion feet year-over-year in just the past week.

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Here is how stocks of the largest U.S. natural gas producers reacted to this latest report:

Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM), the country’s largest producer of natural gas, traded up about 0.9%, at $91.39 in a 52-week range of $86.03 to $104.76.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK) traded up about 2.6%, at $20.58 in a 52-week range of $16.41 to $29.92.

EOG Resources Inc. (NYSE: EOG) traded up about 1% to $94.08. The 52-week range is $81.07 to $118.89.

Furthermore, the United States Natural Gas ETF (NYSEMKT: UNG) traded down about 1.9%, at $14.15 in a 52-week range of $13.12 to $27.89.

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