EIA - Natural Gas Storage Report - Dec 17

[dan_s]

The first triple digit draw of this winter!

Working gas in storage was 3,726 Bcf as of Friday, December 11, 2020, according to EIA estimates. This represents a net decrease of 122 Bcf from the previous week.
Stocks were 284 Bcf higher than last year at this time and 243 Bcf above the five-year average of 3,483 Bcf.
At 3,726 Bcf, total working gas is within the five-year historical range.

In last 13 weeks (a quarter of the year) EIA reported 9 weeks where draws were higher than the 5-year average.
In total, the net change in storage has been -230 BCF compared to the 5-year average.

As I have posted here many times, natural gas exports (as LNG and via pipeline to Mexico) have been and will continue to be much higher than they were last year. Lower year-over-year U.S. natural gas production and higher exports should more than offset lower industrial demand and the impact of a mild winter (which is just a WAG at this point). Also, tightening the dry gas market are higher NGL prices, which encourage upstream companies to strip as many liquids as they can from the raw gas stream.

Because the federal government will be closed on December 24, the Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report will be released December 23 at noon ET.