Having gained over 5 cents yesterday as the new front month contract, NYMEX January 2018 natural gas futures were lower ahead of Thursday's open and the morning release of the weekly storage data. At 6:45 am ET (1145 GMT), the contract was down 8.2 cents to $3.097/MMBtu. The market is awaiting the release of storage data from the US Energy Information Administration at 10:30 am ET that is likely to detail a withdrawal below historical averages as generally mild weather and subdued Thanksgiving-holiday demand likely kept a lid of the amount of natural gas pulled from inventories. For the week ended November 24, market participants surveyed by S&P Global Market Intelligence are looking for a withdrawal from 30 Bcf to 47 Bcf, with consensus formed at a 38 Bcf pull. This will compare to a 43 Bcf year-ago pull and the 47 Bcf five-year average withdrawal. Total working gas stocks currently sit at 3,726 Bcf, or 319 Bcf below the year-ago level and 121 Bcf below the five-year average of 3,847 Bcf, following a 46 Bcf draw reported by the EIA for the week ended November 17.
Meanwhile, revised National Weather Service forecasts show below-average temperatures overtaking a few parts of the West and a majority of the country's eastern two-thirds through both the upcoming six-to-10-day and eight-to-14-day periods, confining the scope of above-average temperatures to portions of the West and much of the Northeast in the shorter-range view and to most of the West in the longer-range view. Average temperatures settle over the balance of the country.
