The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported Thursday morning that U.S. natural gas stocks decreased by 34 billion cubic feet for the week ending December 11. Analysts were expecting a storage withdrawal of around 68 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 76 billion cubic feet.
Natural gas futures for January delivery traded up about 2% in advance of the EIA’s report, at around $1.83 per million BTUs, and traded around $1.79 after the data release, the same as Wednesday’s closing price. Last Thursday, natural gas closed at $2.02 per million BTUs, and over the past five trading days that was the posted high for natural gas futures. A new 52-week low of $1.78 was set Wednesday. The 52-week range for natural gas is $1.78 to $3.95. One year ago the price for a million BTUs was around $3.91.
Warmer than normal temperatures are expected to prevail for the rest of this week, but a cold snap is expected in the eastern part of the United States through the weekend. Beginning next week, temperatures in the east are expected to warm up while the west and the northern tier are touted to be cooler than normal. Overall, natural gas demand should be higher through the middle of next week.
Stockpiles are about 16% above their levels of a year ago and about 9.1% above the five-year average.
The EIA reported that U.S. working stocks of natural gas totaled about 3.846 trillion cubic feet, around 322 billion cubic feet above the five-year average of 3.524 trillion cubic feet and 541 billion cubic feet above last year’s total for the same period. Working gas in storage totaled 3.305 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 down less than 0.1%, at $79.11 in a 52-week range of $66.55 to $95.18.
Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK) traded down about 2.7% to $3.80. The stock’s 52-week range is $3.57 to $21.49.
EOG Resources Inc. (NYSE: EOG) traded down about 2.3% to $74.07. The 52-week range is $68.15 to $101.36.
In addition, the United States Natural Gas ETF (NYSEMKT: UNG) traded down about 2.0%, at $7.02 in a 52-week range of $6.95 to $19.38.
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