Forecasts Abruptly Shift Cooler Over Weekend as Natural Gas Futures Extend Losses naturalgasintel.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from naturalgasintel.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Weather Models Trend Milder Over Weekend as Natural Gas Futures Slide Early
Natural gas futures retreated in early trading Monday as forecasts over the weekend advertised milder conditions that would limit early season cooling demand. The June Nymex contract was down 2.3 cents to $2.935/MMBtu at around 8:45 a.m. ET.
Changes in the weather data over the weekend pointed to lower overall demand for the next 15 days compared to Friday’s projections, according to Bespoke Weather Services.
This comes as the current round of cooler temperatures “gives way to warmth, although the warmth is farther north as opposed to being focused down in the South” where it would result in higher cooling degree days (CDD), Bespoke said. “We do suspect this warmer trend holds in the eastern half of the nation as we move into late May and early June.”
The natural gas storage report from the EIA for the week ending April 2nd indicated that the amount of natural gas held in underground storage in the US rose by 20 billion cubic feet to 1,784 billion cubic feet by the end of the week, which left our gas supplies 235 billion cubic feet, or 11.6% below the 2,019 billion cubic feet that were in storage on April 2nd of last year, and 36 billion cubic feet, or 1.3% below the five-year average of 1,808 billion cubic feet of natural gas that have been in storage as of the 2nd of April in recent years..the 20 billion cubic feet that were added to US natural gas storage this week was less than the average forecast of a 27 billion cubic foot addition from an S&P Global Platts survey of analysts, and was also less than the 30 billion cubic feet added to natural gas storage during the corresponding week of a year earlier, but was well more than the average addition of 8 billion cubic feet of natural gas that have typically been injected into nat
May Natural Gas Advances as Analysts See Signs of Improved Balances
After finding technical support last week, natural gas futures advanced in early trading Monday as analysts pointed to signs of stronger balances. The May Nymex contract was up 5.7 cents to $2.583/MMBtu at around 8:50 a.m. ET.
The gains in futures prices early Monday occurred amid recent indications of a stronger supply/demand balance for natural gas, according to Bespoke Weather Services.
“Running our storage model over the weekend shows us that the last few” U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) prints “have definitely signaled an improvement in the supply/demand balance, which we feel is the reason we have moved up,” Bespoke said in a note to clients.
Slow day for natural gas futures as weather models maintain generally bearish forecastComing week could see stronger demand in Midwest, EastCash prices