THE WEEKLY NATURAL GAS MARKET NEWSLETTER

SEPTEMBER 6, 2022

NATURAL GAS NEWS AND NOTES

The September NYMEX natural gas futures contract expired this week at $9.353. The September contract traded in a wide $3.50 trading range from a low of $7.53 to a high of $10.03 while acting as the prompt month contract. The October contract, which now takes over as the prompt month contract, settled down 48.3 cents on the week at $8.786. After flirting with the $10/DTH level a few times the week before, natural gas futures were unable to make a push to test this psychological resistance level again. With weather forecasts calling for more seasonal like weather over the 6-10 and 8-14day time periods for most of the country, the October contract looks poised to potentially attempt a test of near-term support at $8.30 and then at the $7.50 level.

On Thursday, the EIA reported a storage injection of 61 BCF. This was a slightly higher figure than market analysts had been expecting with the consensus being that an injection of 58 was likely. Storage inventories now stand at 2,640 BCF which is 7.9% below year ago levels and 11.3% below the previous 5-year average. The early estimate for next Thursday's report is an injection of 56 BCF. With the end of the traditional injection season looming, more emphasis will be placed on the weekly natural gas storage report to help better determine what winger storage levels will look like ahead of the heating season.

Daily natural gas production twice topped the 100 BCF/day level last week. Natural gas production levels have been gradually inching up over the last few weeks after being somewhat stagnant for most of the summer. Daily production averaged 98.5 BCF in August. This is up from 94 BCF/day in August 2021.