NEW YORK: US natural gas futures climbed about 2% on Friday as gas followed oil prices higher after Israel launched strikes against Iran, raising worries that the Gulf nation could disrupt Middle Eastern oil and gas supplies.
US crude futures jumped more than 13% overnight, reaching their highest levels since January.
Gas futures for July delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange were up 5.9 cents, or 1.7%, to $3.551 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) at 10:18 a.m. EDT (1418 GMT). On Thursday, the contract closed at its lowest level since May 30 for a fourth day in a row.
For the week, the front-month was down about 4% after gaining about 13% over the prior two weeks.
The premium of gas futures for August over July rose to a record high of 11 cents per mmBtu. With August futures trading higher than July futures so far this year, energy traders said the higher premium was likely due to expectations of lower supply, higher demand and/or a lower surplus of gas in storage in August than July.
So far this year, energy firms have pulled a monthly record high of 1.013 trillion cubic feet of gas out of storage during a brutally cold January and added a monthly record high of 497 billion cubic feet into storage in May when mild weather kept both heating and cooling demand low, according to federal energy data. The prior all-time monthly injection high was 494 bcf in May 2015.
Analysts expect energy firms will set another storage record this week with an eighth triple-digit injection. The US Energy Information Administration will release the June 13 storage report a day ahead of schedule on Wednesday, June 18, due to the US Juneteenth holiday on June 19.
Comments
Comments are closed.