The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported Thursday morning that U.S. natural gas stocks increased by 56 billion cubic feet for the week ending May 6. Analysts were expecting a storage addition of around 58 billion cubic feet. The five-year average for the week is an injection of around 79 billion cubic feet, and last year’s storage addition for the week totaled 101 billion cubic feet. Natural gas inventories rose by 68 billion cubic feet in the week ending April 29.
Natural gas futures for June delivery traded down about 0.4% in advance of the EIA’s report, at around $2.17 per million BTUs, and traded at the same price after the data release. Last Thursday natural gas closed at $2.08 per million BTUs. On Wednesday the contract posted its high for the past five trading days at $2.18. The 52-week range for natural gas is $1.84 to $3.20. One year ago, the price for a million BTUs was around $3.15.
The weather forecast through May 16 calls for some slight increase in demand from the northern tier of states, with most of the rest of the country continuing to experience temperatures in the 60s and 70s. Highs in the 90s are expected next week in Texas. Overall demand for natural gas is expected to be low through the next seven days.
Stockpiles are about 44% above their levels of a year ago and about 43.5% above the five-year average.
The EIA reported that U.S. working stocks of natural gas totaled about 2.681 trillion cubic feet, around 813 billion cubic feet above the five-year average of 1.868 trillion cubic feet and 816 billion cubic feet above last year’s total for the same period. Working gas in storage totaled 1.865 trillion cubic feet for the same period a year ago.
24/7 Wall St.Here’s how share prices of the largest U.S. natural gas producers reacting to Thursday’s report:
Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM), the country’s largest producer of natural gas, traded up about 0.7%, at $89.46 in a 52-week range of $66.55 to $90.00.
Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK) traded up about 1.4% to $5.95. The stock’s 52-week range is $1.50 to $15.57. The company announced Thursday that it had swapped about 4.1% of outstanding stock to redeem some $153 million in debt.
EOG Resources Inc. (NYSE: EOG) traded up about 0.1% at $80.26. The 52-week range is $57.15 to $92.08.
The United States Natural Gas ETF (NYSEMKT: UNG) traded up about 0.2%, at $7.01 in a 52-week range of $5.78 to $15.28.
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