NEW YORK: US natural gas futures climbed about 5% to a two-week high on Thursday on a smaller-than-expected storage build, a drop in daily output and forecasts for higher demand next week than previously expected and hotter-than-normal weather through early August, especially in Texas.
That price increase occurred despite slow growth in the amount of gas flowing to US liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plants due to ongoing maintenance work at several facilities.
The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said utilities added 41 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas into storage during the hotter-than-normal week ended July 14.
That was lower than the 48-bcf build analysts forecast in a Reuters poll and compares with an increase of 35 bcf in the same week last year and a five-year (2018-2022) average increase of 45 bcf.
Last week’s increase boosted stockpiles to 2.971 trillion cubic feet (tcf), or 13.8% above the five-year average of 2.611 tcf for the time of year.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.