The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported Thursday morning that U.S. natural gas stocks increased by 7 billion cubic feet for the week ending April 15. Analysts were expecting a storage addition of around 2 billion cubic feet. The five-year average for the week is an injection of around 25 billion cubic feet, and last year’s storage addition for the week totaled 82 billion cubic feet. Natural gas inventories fell by 3 billion cubic feet in the prior week.
Natural gas futures for June delivery traded up about 1% in advance of the EIA’s report, at around $2.20 per million BTUs, and traded around $2.18 after the data release. Last Thursday natural gas closed at $2.06 per million BTUs. On Wednesday the contract posted its high for the past five trading days at $2.24. The 52-week range for natural gas is $1.84 to $3.20. One year ago the price for a million BTUs was around $2.98.
The weather forecast for the next couple of weeks has turned cooler, sending natural gas prices up by about 10% in the past week.
Stockpiles are about 55% above their levels of a year ago and about 49% above the five-year average.
The EIA reported that U.S. working stocks of natural gas totaled about 2.484 trillion cubic feet, around 811 billion cubic feet above the five-year average of 1.673 trillion cubic feet and 881 billion cubic feet above last year’s total for the same period. Working gas in storage totaled 1.603 trillion cubic feet for the same period a year ago.
Here’s how share prices of the largest U.S. natural gas producers reacting to this latest report:
Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM), the country’s largest producer of natural gas, traded up about 0.7%, at $87.40 in a 52-week range of $66.55 to $90.09.
Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK) traded down about 2.8% to $6.25. The stock’s 52-week trading range is $1.50 to $16.98.
EOG Resources Inc. (NYSE: EOG) traded flat at $79.37. The 52-week range is $57.15 to $101.36.
Furthermore, the United States Natural Gas ETF (NYSEMKT: UNG) traded up about 1.1%, at $7.16 in a 52-week range of $5.78 to $15.28.
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