Natural gas wholesale contracts edged lower on Wednesday, as market players looked ahead to weekly storage data to gauge supply and demand levels.
Natural gas wholesale contracts slumped to a ten-week low of $3.006 on Monday as forecasts called for mostly warmer-than-normal weather in key regions across the U.S. for the rest of the winter.
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Natural gas for March delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange declined 0.04 cents, or around 0.1%, to $3.126 per million British thermal units, after gaining 8.0 cents, or 2.6%, a day earlier.
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Natural gas prices of the heating fuel are down around 17% so far this year as forecasts for warm winter weather weighed on heating demand expectations.
Natural gas markets have been volatile in recent weeks, changing course rapidly in response to shifting outlooks in short-term weather patterns. About half of U.S. homes use natural gas for heating.
See a recap of previous weeks EIA storage reports here.
EIA Natural Gas Storage Report 02-09-17
Working gas in storage was 2,559 Bcf as of Friday, February 3, 2017, according to EIA estimates. This represents a net decrease of 152 Bcf from the previous week. Stocks were 325 Bcf less than last year at this time and 45 Bcf above the five-year average of 2,514 Bcf. At 2,559 Bcf, total working gas is within the five-year historical range.
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Analysts said utilities likely pulled 153 billion cubic feet of gas from storage during the cold week ended Feb. 3. As of 10:32 ET, natural gas futures were trading higher by 1.1% to $3.161.
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