Natural Gas Futures Rise Amid Smaller Injection, Oversupply Remains
Natural gas futures rose to $2.766 per million British thermal units after Wednesday's close of $2.722, following this week's storage report that came in tighter than expected.
The weekly injection was 28 Bcf, a 20% miss to the consensus estimate of 35 Bcf and the smallest build of the season so far.
Total working gas in storage rose to 3,084 Bcf, which is still 185 Bcf above the five-year average of 2,899 Bcf and represents a 6.4% surplus that has been stable through the entire injection season.
The market needs sustained withdrawals or genuinely deficient injections to work off this overhang, but for now, it's accumulating even more cushion, with the official outlook forecasting working inventories reaching 3,966 Bcf by the end of October, which would be 5% above the five-year average heading into the withdrawal season.