Natural gas keeps to steady week as demand bets offset storage builds

Investing.com — The bulls in natural gas are keeping to their rhythm of staying just above mid-$2 pricing amid prospects for warmer temperatures that could see Americans cranking up their air-conditioners a little more for the summer.

With an hour to Friday’s settlement, the on the New York Mercantile Exchange’s Henry Hub was up 2.2 cents, or 0.8%, at $2.63 per mmBtu, or metric million British thermal units. For the week itself, the benchmark gas futures contract was virtually unchanged, after two back-to-back weekly gains of 16.8% and 3.8%.

It has been an interesting week for natural gas, with bulls managing to keep the market in the positive for four out of five sessions, including on Thursday when the U.S. Energy Information Administration, or EIA, reported a higher-than-expected weekly storage number for the fuel.

Natural gas in rose by 95 billion cubic feet last week. The highest build estimate by most analysts for last week was 91 bcf.

In the prior week to June 9, utilities injected just 84 bcf into storage after burning the gas needed to meet power and cooling needs.

The latest 95-bcf build compared with a 76-bcf injection during the same week a year ago and a five-year (2018-2022) average increase of 86 bcf.

It bumped up the total volume of gas in underground caverns in the United States to 2.729 trillion cubic feet, or tcf — up 26.5% from the year-ago level of 2.158 tcf and 15.3% higher than the five-year average of 2.367 tcf.

In Friday’s session, Henry Hub’s front-month got to a low of $2.524, ostensibly on concerns over the supply build, before rebounding.

Keeping to a steady rhythm of mid-$2 and above

Gas prices have managed to stay at or above the mid-$2 mark of late, helped by anticipation of higher cooling demand in the coming days and weeks as the U.S. summer season is projected to bring warmer temperatures.

“Power burn demand has decreased to 37.9 bcf/day today,” analysts at Houston-based energy markets advisory Gelber & Associates said in a note on Thursday to their clients in natural gas. “As weather warms over the coming weeks, power burn is likely to increase back to previous levels and push higher.”

With a near 15% gain for June, gas futures on the Henry Hub are headed for their best performance since August — the month they hit a 14-year high of $10 per mmBtu.

While summer weather hasn’t hit its typical baking point across the country, cooling demand is inching up by the day, particularly in Texas. This has sparked realization in the trade that higher price lows might be more common than new bottoms.The lowest Henry Hub’s front-month got to this week was $2.448, versus the $2.136 bottom seen at the start of June.

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