US natural gas futures dropped more than 3% to a one-week low on Friday on forecasts for less hot weather than previously expected and oversupply of gas in storage, even though a federal weekly report showed a surprise draw in inventories this week.
Front-month gas futures for September delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange were down 7.4 cents, or about 3.4%, to settle at $2.123 per million British thermal units.
“Prices are mainly down because of the high levels of gas in storage and high production volumes. Lowered demand from LNG maintenance has also allowed storage to stay so high,” said Ryan Parsons, an analyst at energy consulting firm Gelber and Associates.
However, “we are bullish on market prices through the end of 2024,” Parsons added.
The US Energy Information Administration on Thursday said utilities drew 6 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas from inventories during the week ended Aug. 9, decreasing stockpiles to 3.264 trillion cubic feet (tcf). However, that was still above 7.2% the same week a year ago and 12.5% above the five-year average for the week.
Financial firm LSEG estimated 223 cooling degree days (CDDs) over the next two weeks, slightly lower than the 227 CDDs estimated on Thursday. The normal for this time of year is 186 CDDs.
LSEG forecast average gas demand in the Lower 48 US states, including exports, to rise from 104.4 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) this week to 106.5 bcfd next week.