Will This Development Help Boost Natural Gas Prices?

The United States Energy Information Administration reported Thursday that the U.S. natural gas in storage declined by 145 billion cubic feet for the week ended March 8, a slightly greater decline than the 134 billion cubic feet analysts had expected. This greater-than-anticipated drop in U.S. inventories helped natural-gas futures gain more ground after the report was released, as the level of inventories is used to determine prices for natural gas products.

In advance of the report, futures were trading up approximately 1 percent — at $3.73 per million British thermal units — and quickly increased an additional 1 percent to $3.78 per million BTUs immediately after the data was released.

Working stocks of natural gas totaled 1.94 trillion cubic feet last week, stated the EIA, a level approximately 198 billion cubic feet higher than the five-year average of 1.74 trillion cubic feet. But last week’s numbers were lower than the working gas storage total of 2.38 trillion cubic feet reported for the same period last year…