First up, price action since yesterday's storage report via
FinViz:
And from the Energy Information Administration:
...In the News:
Record high weekly addition pushes natural gas stocks above five-year average
With a net injection of 132 billion cubic feet (Bcf) for the week ending May 29, working natural gas in storage surpassed the five-year (2010-14) average level. This was the largest implied weekly net injection ever reported in EIA’s Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report,
raising stocks to 2,233 Bcf, 22 Bcf (1%) above the five-year average
and 751 Bcf (51%) above this same week last year. Because EIA does not
survey storage operators directly on the flows in and out of their
facilities, the change in storage levels, week over week, is considered
an implied net flow.
Working natural gas inventories at the beginning of the 2015
injection season on April 1 totaled 1,476 Bcf, which was 10.5%, or 173
Bcf, below the five-year average. Inventories in 2014, following a
strong 2013-14 winter withdrawal season that led to stocks falling to a 10-year low of 837 Bcf in March, remained below their five-year average throughout 2014.
Earlier this year, on February 13, inventories exceeded the
five-year average by 2.8%, or 58 Bcf, because of milder temperatures and
reduced demand. With the return of extremely cold weather during the
remainder of the winter, however, withdrawals pushed stocks back below
their five-year average.
Since the start of this year’s natural gas injection season on April
1, weekly injections surpassed their five-year average each week, and
often by a wide margin. Net injections from April 1 through May 29
totaled 772 Bcf, 38% higher than the five-year average of same-period
injections. Over this period, there was:
- Increased production averaging 72.8 billion cubic feet per day
(Bcf/d), 10.3 Bcf/d (16.5%) above the five-year average of 62.5 Bcf/d,
as reported by Bentek Energy.
- Moderate power burn that increased by 3 Bcf/d, or 15%, over the
five year average as reported by Bentek, offsetting some of the
production gain.
- Moderate weather, during which cooling degree days totaled slightly
above the five-year average for April, but below the average for May.
Marketed natural gas production in EIA’s the Short-Term Energy Outlook
(STEO), May 2015, is forecasted to be 4.3 Bcf/d (6.0%) higher than the
five-year average over the remainder of the 2015 injection season
(through October), reflecting production continuing above 2014 levels
in the Lower 48 states. This strong natural gas production, along with
near-average summer weather forecasted by the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration, supports conditions needed for an
above-average injection season....MORE
And the temperature anomaly map that got us to where we was:
