The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported Thursday morning that U.S. natural gas stocks increased by 73 billion cubic feet for the week ending April 22. Analysts were expecting a storage addition of around 70 billion cubic feet. The five-year average for the week is an injection of around 52 billion cubic feet, and last year’s storage addition for the week totaled 84 billion cubic feet. Natural gas inventories rose by 7 billion cubic feet in the prior week.
Natural gas futures for June delivery traded down about 2.7% in advance of the EIA’s report, at around $2.09 per million BTUs, and traded around $2.08 after the data release. Last Thursday natural gas closed at $2.21 per million BTUs. On Monday the contract posted its high for the past five trading days at $2.30. The 52-week range for natural gas is $1.84 to $3.20. One year ago the price for a million BTUs was around $3.05.
The weather forecast through May 1 indicates that temperatures should tend toward average or below readings. Into the middle of the week, temperatures in the 50s and 60s are expected across the northern portion of the country and slightly warmer than normal in the southern part of the United States, with temperatures into the 90s in Texas. Demand for natural gas is expected to be low over the whole country into the middle of next week.
Stockpiles are about 52% above their levels of a year ago and about 48% above the five-year average.
The EIA reported that U.S. working stocks of natural gas totaled about 2.557 trillion cubic feet, around 832 billion cubic feet above the five-year average of 1.725 trillion cubic feet and 870 billion cubic feet above last year’s total for the same period. Working gas in storage totaled 1.687 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 Thursday’s report:
Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM), the country’s largest producer of natural gas, traded down about 0.4% to $88.14, in a 52-week range of $66.55 to $90.09.
Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK) traded up about 3% to $7.36. The stock’s 52-week range is $1.50 to $16.98.
EOG Resources Inc. (NYSE: EOG) traded down about 0.3% to $84.24. The 52-week range is $57.15 to $101.36.
In addition, the United States Natural Gas ETF (NYSEMKT: UNG) traded down about 2.5%, at $6.77 in a 52-week range of $5.78 to $15.28.
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