Natural Gas Inventory Rises More Than Expected

Natural gas futures prices were trading down about 0.1% in advance of the EIA’s report, at around $4.66 per million BTUs, and slipped further to around $4.68 immediately following the report.

For the same week a year ago stockpiles rose by 92 billion cubic feet, and the five-year average for the week is an increase of 87 billion cubic feet. Stockpiles are about 29% below their levels of a year ago and about 33% below the five-year average.

Next week’s forecast calls for very warm to hot temperatures across the heavily populated regions of the United States, driving up demand for cooling.

The EIA reported that U.S. working stocks of natural gas totaled 1.72 trillion cubic feet, about 851 billion cubic feet below the five-year average of 2.57 trillion cubic feet. Working gas in storage totaled 2.43 trillion cubic feet for the same period a year ago. Natural gas inventories are rising again but remain well below the bottom of the five-year range.

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, was down about 0.4%, at $102.28 in a 52-week range of $84.79 to $103.45.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK) was down about 0.3% to $30.60, in a 52-week range of $19.32 to $30.80.

EOG Resources Inc. (NYSE: EOG) was down about 0.1% to $113.44. The 52-week range is $62.27 to $115.21.

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