EIA - Natural Gas Storage Report - May 20

[dan_s]

Working gas in storage was 2,100 Bcf as of Friday, May 14, 2021, according to EIA estimates. This represents a net increase of 71 Bcf from the previous week. Stocks were 391 Bcf less than last year at this time and 87 Bcf below the five-year average of 2,187 Bcf.
At 2,100 Bcf, total working gas is within the five-year historical range.

This is the 4th week in a row that the weekly build has been less than the 5-year average and MUCH LOWER than the builds for the same four weeks a year ago.
I expect this trend to continue since the weekly builds from mid-May to mid-June are the largest of the year. 5-year average builds for the next five weeks are 92, 96, 92, 89, 87 Bcf.

Starting this weekend the weather forecast looks bullish for natural gas demand as summer like heat will spread across the South and up the East Coast.

As long as exports of U.S. gas stay high it is unlikely that storage will be able to rebuild to the 5-year average before the next winter heating season. We need approximately 4 TCF in storage to make it safely through a cold winter.