The futures are up
a dime .102 at $2.355, making back much of yesterdday's loss.
From Reuters:
Front-month U.S. natural gas futures moved up sharply on Thursday after the government reported a weekly inventory build below market expectations.
The U.S. Energy Information
Administration report showed total domestic gas inventories rose last
week by 28 billion cubic feet to 2.576 trillion cubic feet. Traders and
analysts polled by Reuters had expected a 31 bcf gain.
At
11:30 a.m. EDT (1530 GMT), front-month gas futures on the New York
Mercantile Exchange were up 11.3 cents, or about 5 percent, at $2.366
per million British thermal units after climbing to an intraday high of
$2.373 after the EIA report.
Just before the release of the data at 10:30 a.m., the front month was trading in the $2.33 area.
The nearby contract, which hit a 10-year low of $1.90 two weeks ago, peaked on Tuesday at $2.385, its highest since mid-March.
The
inventory build was light relative to expectations and sharply trimmed
the surplus to last year by 32 bcf to 840 bcf, or 48 percent. It also
sliced 51 bcf from the excess to the five-year average, reducing the
total to 857 bcf, or 50 percent.
"The
build last week was slightly below survey expectations, a minor bullish
surprise. We expect to see another below average storage injection for
next week, and so the ongoing context is also supportive," Tim Evans,
energy analyst at Citi Futures Perspective, said in a report.
STORAGE, STILL A PROBLEM FOR BULLS
While
the inventory surplus to last year has dropped 5 percent from the highs
in late March, traders said the market was still a long way from
eliminating an oversupply that could pressure prices to new lows this
year....MORE
From
the EIA:
| Working Gas in Underground Storage, Lower 48 |
other formats: Summary TXT CSV |
| Region |
Stocks in billion cubic feet (Bcf) |
Historical Comparisons |
| 04/27/12 |
04/20/12 |
Change |
Year Ago (04/27/11) |
5-Year (2007-2011) Average |
| Stocks (Bcf) |
% Change |
Stocks (Bcf) |
% Change |
| East |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| West |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Producing |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Total |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Notes and Definitions
Beginning with the
report period for the week ending March 16, 2012, EIA is including salt
dome and nonsalt-dome subtotals for the Producing Region in the
“Summary” section. The sum of the components may not equal the total
for the Producing Region, because of independent rounding.
|
Summary
Working gas in storage was 2,576 Bcf as of Friday, April 27, 2012,
according to EIA estimates. This represents a net increase of 28 Bcf from the previous week.
Stocks were 840 Bcf higher than last year at this time and 857 Bcf above
the 5-year average of 1,719 Bcf. In the East Region, stocks were 425 Bcf above
the 5-year average following net injections of 20 Bcf. Stocks in the Producing Region were 325 Bcf above
the 5-year average of 715 Bcf after
a net withdrawal of 1 Bcf. Stocks in the West Region
were 107 Bcf above the 5-year average after a net addition of 9 Bcf. At 2,576 Bcf,
total working gas is above the 5-year historical range....
