NYMEX April natural gas futures moved in a seesaw fashion overnight in the US ahead of Friday's open, as traders considered a changing fundamental landscape. At 6:50 am ET (1150 GMT) the contract was 1.1 cents higher at $2.709 while trading from $2.686/MMBtu to $2.728/MMBtu.
The US Energy Information Administration's latest storage data outlined a net 78 Bcf withdrawal for the week ended February 23 that took total working gas stocks to 1,682 Bcf, or 680 Bcf below the year-ago level and 372 Bcf below the five-year average of 2,054 Bcf.
While the reported inventory draw was on the high end of the range of estimates coming into the day and well above the 7 Bcf year-ago drawdown, it was well below the 118 Bcf five-year-average pull. Warmer weather that sapped heating demand is seen to have encouraged the week's storage withdrawal.
"Next week's report is likely to show a below normal injection level as the weather has been mild for most of this week in the main natural gas consuming regions of the country," Energy Management Institute principal Dominick Chirichella said.
