NEW YORK: US natural gas futures dropped almost 4% on Thursday to their lowest in almost two weeks as global prices slid from record highs and on expectations a federal report will show last week's US storage build was bigger than usual for a fourth week.
Big storage injections and rising US output in recent weeks have convinced many in the market that the United States will have more than enough gas in inventory for the upcoming winter heating season. The situation around the rest of the world, however, is very different. Since the middle of August, global gas prices have repeatedly hit record highs as worries Europe may not have enough gas in storage for the winter and insatiable demand for the fuel in Asia have boosted demand for available liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports.
But some of the world's biggest LNG importers are reducing orders in the face of the 500% gas price surge in Europe seen so far this year, raising concerns about potential long-term demand destruction for the fuel.
Analysts forecast US utilities added 105 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas into storage during the week ended Oct. 1. That compares with an increase of 75 bcf in the same week last year and a five-year (2016-2020) average increase of 81 bcf.
If correct, last week's injection would boost stockpiles to 3.275 trillion cubic feet (tcf), which would be 5.5% below the five-year average of 3.464 tcf for this time of year.
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