March Natural Gas Stabilizes Early; Storage Print Feeds Oversupply Worries

With oversupply concerns remaining top-of-mind following a bearish miss in the latest government inventory data, natural gas futures hovered close to even at discounted levels early Friday.

Having sold off throughout the week as the market searches for a bottom, the March Nymex contract was up 1.3 cents to $1.594/MMBtu at around 8:45 a.m. ET.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Thursday reported a 49 Bcf withdrawal for the week ended Feb. 9. The print surprised well to the bearish side for a market already anticipating a seasonally light pull.

The surplus to the five-year average ballooned to 348 Bcf for the period, with total Lower 48 storage sitting at 2,535 Bcf, EIA data show.

For the latest EIA print, “the primary miss was in the South Central,”...