The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported Thursday morning that U.S. natural gas stocks decreased by 58 billion cubic feet for the week ending December 25. Analysts were expecting a storage withdrawal of around 45 billion cubic feet. The five-year average for the week is a withdrawal of around 98 billion cubic feet, and last year’s withdrawal for the week totaled 26 billion cubic feet. The withdrawal from storage totaled 32 billion cubic feet in the previous week.

Natural gas futures for February delivery traded up about 5% in advance of the EIA’s report, at around $2.33 per million BTUs, and traded around $2.31 after the data release. Last Thursday natural gas closed at $2.08 per million BTUs, and over the past five trading days the high for natural gas futures was posted Tuesday at $2.39 per million BTUs. The 52-week range for natural gas is $1.80 to $3.70. One year ago the price for a million BTUs was around $3.53.

Natural gas futures closed at $2.21 per million BTUs on Wednesday, following weather forecasts that predicted only a short-lived spell of colder weather in the Midwest and Northeast. Early Thursday prices recovered nearly all their Wednesday losses before falling back somewhat following the EIA report.

Stockpiles are about 16.5% above their levels of a year ago and about 13.5% above the five-year average.

The EIA reported that U.S. working stocks of natural gas totaled about 3.756 trillion cubic feet, around 448 billion cubic feet above the five-year average of 3.308 trillion cubic feet and 532 billion cubic feet above last year’s total for the same period. Working gas in storage totaled 3.224 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 down about 0.1%, at $78.03 in a 52-week range of $66.55 to $93.45.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK) traded up about 0.5% to $4.42. The stock’s 52-week range is $3.56 to $21.49.

EOG Resources Inc. (NYSE: EOG) traded up about 0.1% to $70.66. The 52-week range is $68.15 to $101.36.

Furthermore, the United States Natural Gas ETF (NYSEMKT: UNG) traded up about 3.2% at $8.65 in a 52-week range of $6.91 to $16.93.

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