The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported Thursday morning that U.S. natural gas stocks decreased by 76 billion cubic feet for the week ending December 4. Analysts were expecting a storage withdrawal of around 60 billion cubic feet. The five-year average for the week is a withdrawal of around 79 billion cubic feet, and last year’s withdrawal for the week totaled 51 billion cubic feet.
Natural gas futures for January delivery traded down less than 0.1% in advance of the EIA’s report, at around $2.05 per million BTUs, and traded at $2.08 after the data release, compared with Wednesday’s closing price of $2.06. Last Thursday natural gas closed at $2.18 per million BTUs, and over the past five trading days natural gas futures posted a high of $2.21 on Friday and a new 52-week low on Tuesday. The 52-week range for natural gas is $2.01 to $4.02. One year ago the price for a million BTUs was around $3.94.
For the rest of this week and well into next, temperatures across the United States are expected to be well above normal. This weather pattern cuts the demand for heating and with it the demand for natural gas. Temperatures are likely to be 10 to 25 degrees warmer than usual for the next several days and demand for natural gas is expected to remain lower than normal.
Stockpiles are about 15% above their levels of a year ago and about 6.5% above the five-year average.
The EIA reported that U.S. working stocks of natural gas totaled about 3.88 trillion cubic feet, around 236 billion cubic feet above the five-year average of 3.644 trillion cubic feet and 514 billion cubic feet above last year’s total for the same period. Working gas in storage totaled 3.366 trillion cubic feet for the same period a year ago.
Here’s how share prices 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 3.1%, at $76.97 in a 52-week range of $66.55 to $95.18.
Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK) traded up about 3.5% to $4.63. The stock’s 52-week range is $4.03 to $21.49.
EOG Resources Inc. (NYSE: EOG) traded up about 1.5% to $79.62. The 52-week range is $68.15 to $101.36.
Furthermore, the United States Natural Gas ETF (NYSEMKT: UNG) traded up about 1.5%, at $8.16 in a 52-week range of $7.95 to $19.53.
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