The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported Thursday morning that U.S. natural gas stocks decreased by 32 billion cubic feet for the week ending December 18. Analysts were expecting a storage withdrawal of around 45 billion cubic feet. The five-year average for the week is a withdrawal of around 140 billion cubic feet, and last year’s withdrawal for the week totaled 49 billion cubic feet. The withdrawal from storage totaled 34 billion cubic feet in the previous week.
Natural gas futures for February delivery traded up about 1.8% in advance of the EIA’s report, at around $2.07 per million BTUs, and traded around $2.10 after the data release. Last Thursday natural gas closed at $1.87 per million BTUs, and over the past five trading days the high for natural gas futures was posted Monday at $2.01 per million BTUs. A new 52-week low of $1.80 was set last Friday. The 52-week range for natural gas is $1.80 to $3.70. One year ago the price for a million BTUs was around $3.91.
Last week’s low of $1.80 was the lowest futures price in over a decade and was the result of much warmer weather over the more heavily populated regions of the United States. Then on Monday, a new forecast suggested that temperatures will turn cooler again as December draws to a close, and that led to the big gain.
Stockpiles are about 17% above their levels of a year ago and about 12% above the five-year average.
The EIA reported that U.S. working stocks of natural gas totaled about 3.814 trillion cubic feet, around 411 billion cubic feet above the five-year average of 3.403 trillion cubic feet and 561 billion cubic feet above last year’s total for the same period. Working gas in storage totaled 3.253 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 the latest report:
Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM), the country’s largest producer of natural gas, traded down about 1.2%, at $79.26 in a 52-week range of $66.55 to $94.43.
Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK) traded up about 1.7% to $4.47. The stock’s 52-week range is $3.56 to $21.49.
EOG Resources Inc. (NYSE: EOG) traded down about 0.6% to $73.27. The 52-week range is $68.15 to $101.36.
Furthermore, the United States Natural Gas ETF (NYSEMKT: UNG) traded up about 0.7%, at $7.64 in a 52-week range of $6.91 to $16.93.
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