EIA - Natural Gas Storage Report - Mar 30

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dan_s
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Joined: Fri Apr 23, 2010 8:22 am

EIA - Natural Gas Storage Report - Mar 30

Post by dan_s »

Working gas in storage was 1,853 Bcf as of Friday, March 24, 2023, according to EIA estimates.
This represents a net decrease of 47 Bcf from the previous week.
Stocks were 442 Bcf higher than last year at this time and 321 Bcf above the five-year average of 1,532 Bcf.
At 1,853 Bcf, total working gas is within the five-year historical range.

My WAG is that we will see two more weekly draws from storage because wintery weather is going to hang around the Great Lakes region through April 10th. Gas in storage on April 7th should be ~1,800 Bcf which is within the 5-year historical range. There is not a "glut" of natural gas in the U.S. Demand for U.S. natural gas is ~37,000 Bcf per year, including exports.

If I was the CEO of a utility that uses natural gas to generate electricity, I would be telling my gas buyers to get as much gas as possible into storage during April as they can at today's low prices.

Front month natural gas futures contracts have plunged to near $2.00 for the same reason that oil futures plunged in mid-March, too many hedge funds and banks went long on gas futures back in December. It may take a couple of more months, but the futures market will re-balance soon and the price of gas will go up. At the time of this post the DEC23 NYMEX contract for HH gas is $3.62/MMBtu.
Dan Steffens
Energy Prospectus Group
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