US natural gas futures ended down 2.9 percent on Thursday following a government report showing a big storage build and on forecasts for warmer, near-normal weather over the next two weeks. Front-month gas futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange closed down 7.5 cents at $2.531 per million British thermal units.
Some of the most-active options on Thursday were the $2 July 2015 puts and the $1.95 June 2015 puts. The US Energy Information Administration said utilities added 90 billion cubic feet of gas into storage during the week ended April 17, up a bit from analysts' estimates of 88 bcf in a Reuters poll.
That was the biggest build on record for that week, according to government data dating back to 1994. It compared with builds of 63 bcf last week and 45 bcf a year earlier, and a five-year average increase of 46 bcf. Thomson Reuters Analytics said the latest Global Forecast System weather model for the lower 48 US states projected temperatures will rise to near-normal levels over the next two weeks, with 121 heating degree days.
That compared with a forecast of 123 HDDs earlier Thursday and a 30-year norm of 115 HDDs for this time of year. HDDs as calculated by Thomson Reuters Analytics are a measure of population-weighted average temperatures. Despite the warmer weather, average consumption in the lower 48 was expected to ease to 57.5 billion cubic feet per day over the next two weeks. That compared with a forecast 57.6 bcfd earlier Thursday and a 30-year norm of 53.2 bcfd for this time of year. Thomson Reuters Analytics forecast production would ease to 72.9 bcfd from 73.0 bcfd on Wednesday. That compared with 67.1 bcfd produced this time last year and a record high of 74.5 bcfd in December.