EIA Natural Gas Storage Build Of +79 Bcf Misses Estimates

On May 9, 2024, EIA released its Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report. The report indicated that working gas in storage increased by 79 Bcf from the previous week, compared to analyst consensus of +87 Bcf.

At current levels, stocks are 444 Bcf higher than last year and 640 Bcf above the five-year average.

The price of natural gas moved higher as traders reacted to the EIA report as storage build missed analyst estimates.

The current demand for natural gas is moderate thanks to the warm weather in Texas. However, weather forecasts indicate that demand for natural gas will decline starting from Friday.

From a big picture point of view, natural gas prices continue to rebound from the support in the $1.95 – $2.00 range. Traders bet that supply/demand balance in natural gas markets will get more bullish in the upcoming weeks.

It should be noted that the number of active U.S. natural gas drilling rigs has recently dropped to a 2.5 year low, suggesting that producers were trying to curtail supply due to low natural gas prices. It remains to be seen whether falling rig count will provide sufficient support to natural gas markets as stocks stay at high levels.

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