Leading up to todays EIA Natural Gas Storage Report, wholesale contracts fell on Wednesday, with the commodity falling under pressure as natural gas traders begin to doubt about the sustainability of the rally.
Natural gas wholesale contracts have rallied this spring and summer amid increased demand for the commodity to generate electricity and power air conditioners. Natural gas contracts started July at a one-year high, after rallying 50%, but as the month has gone on the rally has been losing steam.
On Wednesday, natural gas wholesale contracts fell 2.6% to settle at $2.658 per million British Thermal Units, a one-month low. Pressuring the commodity are the concerns that the hot summer won’t be enough to help reduce stockpiles, and natural gas supplies will end up exhausting their storage space this fall. The next big market driving data will be the upcoming inventory report, due on later this morning (see below).
On the power front, U..S. power generators are expected to burn record amounts of natural gas this week as consumers crank up their air conditioners to escape a heat wave blanketing the country. Natural gas used to generate power was expected to reach 43.3 billion cubic feet per day (bcf/d) on Friday, according to data from Thomson Reuters Supply Chain & Commodities Research. That would top the current record of 42.1 bcf/d set on July 29, 2015, during a brutal heat wave. High temperatures in the biggest U.S. cities were expected to top 90 degrees Fahrenheit on Friday, with New York at 92, Los Angeles at 91, Chicago at 93 and Houston at 94, according to meteorologist AccuWeather.
7/21/2016 EIA Natural Gas Storage Report:
Working gas in storage was 3,277 Bcf as of Friday, July 15, 2016, according to EIA estimates. This represents a net increase of 34 Bcf from the previous week ( seen here ). Stocks were 471 Bcf higher than last year at this time and 559 Bcf above the five-year average of 2,718 Bcf. At 3,277 Bcf, total working gas is above the five-year historical range.
Analysts believed that U.S. utilities likely injected 39 billion cubic feet of natural gas into storage in the week ended July 15. As of 10:32 ET, natural gas futures were trading higher by 1.6% to $2.701.
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