The NYMEX July natural gas futures contract was down slightly in Thursday trading, falling 1.5 cents to settle at $2.580/MMBtu after the US Energy Information Administration released its weekly storage report showing a 69-Bcf injection.
The July contract traded in a range of $2.553/MMBtu to $2.639/MMBtu.
According to the US EIA weekly storage report, 69 Bcf of natural gas was injected into storage for the period ending June 10, significantly lower than last year's 96 Bcf and the five-year average of 87 Bcf, helping to chip into the storage overhang, leaving stocks 633 Bcf higher than this time last year. The injection was slightly more than the 64 Bcf expected by analysts surveyed by S&P Global Platts.
According to Timothy Evans of Citi Futures, the storage report injection suggests "that the trend toward a tighter background supply/demand balance may have come to an end." However, weather-related demand will continue to keep injections below the five-year average for the remainder of the month, he said.
In the eight- to 14-day outlook, above-average temperatures are expected over major demand centers in the Southeast, Southwest and Pacific Northwest. As a result, power burn is expected to continue to rise, reaching a high of 37.9 Bcf/d toward the end of the month, according to data from Bentek Energy.
Power burn remains elevated across the country, expected to sit around 33.1 Bcf/d on Thursday. That level is about 2 Bcf/d higher than the previous seven-day average, pushing the June average to 30.5 Bcf/d, almost 2.2 Bcf/d higher than this time last year.
Elevated power burn can expect to continue into July as the National Weather Service projects above-average temperatures over a majority of the country in its July outlook released Thursday.
The NYMEX settlement price is considered preliminary and subject to change until a final settlement price is posted at 7 pm EDT (2300 GMT).
