Natural Gas prices - July 30

[dan_s]

The front month NYMEX futures contract for US natural gas (SEP24) was trading at $2.10/MMBtu when this was posted, halting the recent selling pressure that lowered prices to a near three-month low of just under $2.00 last week.
> Uncertain supply from major exporting hubs lifted demand for US LNG.
> Global gas markets were impacted by the outage of one of two trains at Ichthys LNG plant in Darwin, Australia, and persistent setbacks in Norwegian gas fields limited availability for key importers.
> The developments coincided with reports that Freeport LNG, the second-largest US export facility, is pulling more than 2 billion cubic feet of gas per day and is on track to return to full production. Added capacity for US LNG exporters increases the amount of foreign sales and raises buying competition for US consumers.
>In the meantime, the latest report from the EIA showed that US utilities added 22 billion cubic feet of gas into storage last week, surpassing market expectations of a 15 Bcf increase. Gas storage levels are now 16.4% above the 5-year average.