NEW YORK: US natural gas futures were little changed on Thursday as the market waited for direction from a federal report expected to show a smaller-than-usual storage build last week when warmer-than-normal weather kept air conditioning demand high.
Analysts forecast US utilities added 67 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas into storage during the week ended Sept. 15. That compares with an increase of 99 bcf in the same week last year and a five-year (2018-2022) average increase of 84 bcf.
If correct, last week’s increase would boost stockpiles to 3.272 trillion cubic feet (tcf), or 6.0% above the five-year average of 3.086 tcf for the time of year.
Prices held steady despite forecasts for milder weather and less gas demand over the next two weeks than previously expected.
Front-month gas futures for October delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange were up 0.9 cents, or 0.3%, to $2.742 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) at 10:20 a.m. EDT (1420 GMT).
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