EIA Natural Gas Storage Build Of +50 Bcf Misses Estimates

On April 18, 2024, EIA released its Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report. The report indicated that working gas in storage increased by 50 Bcf from the previous week.

Analysts expected that working gas in storage would increase by 54 Bcf, so the report was somewhat bullish.

At current levels, stocks are 424 Bcf higher than last year at this time and 622 Bcf above the five-year average of 1,711 Bcf.

The current demand for natural gas is moderate. Production has declined by about 10% in 2024, but production trends did not provide sufficient support to natural gas prices due to warm winter.

Natural gas  continued its attempts to settle above the $1.75 level as traders reacted to the EIA report. From the technical point of view, natural gas received strong support near the key $1.60 – $1.65 level and is trying to gain upside momentum, supported by the better-than-expected data from the EIA.

It remains to be seen whether natural gas will be able to gain sustainable momentum as traders are worried about weak demand. At this point, it looks that natural gas will need strong positive catalysts to get out of the current trading range between the support at $1.60 – $1.65 and the resistance at $1.95 – $2.00.

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