The Energy Information Administration reported a net injection of 61 billion cubic feet into US underground storage for the week ended November 6, taking working gas to 3,862 Bcf. The build was smaller than the roughly 67 Bcf a Wall Street Journal survey had expected, and it still left stocks 75 Bcf above the five year average of 3,787 Bcf and 92 Bcf below the year earlier level of 3,954 Bcf.
The regional detail was broad based: South Central storage rose 27 Bcf, the Midwest 18 Bcf, the East 12 Bcf, and the Mountain and Pacific regions 2 Bcf each. Total working gas remains within the five year historical range, the EIA said. The report was published on Friday rather than the usual Thursday because of the holiday schedule.
December natural gas futures settled at 3.230 dollars per million British thermal units on Friday, down 3.3 percent on the day in the site’s market tables, but up 7.7 percent on the week. That weekly gain, into a storage print that shows a surplus to the five year average, prices the winter risk rather than the current balance.
The contrast with Europe is the cross market point. US storage starts the heating season slightly long against its own history, while EU storage stood at 71.6 percent on November 11, the lowest start of the decade, with Germany at 58 percent. If winter bites on both sides of the Atlantic, the contest for flexible LNG cargoes is where the two balances meet.