Natural gas futures closed the week lower as the latest storage data — the tightest all summer — was seen as a one-off event amid an otherwise bearish backdrop. With the coming two weeks likely to include only a few days of cool weather, the November Nymex gas futures contract fell 22.0 cents to $5.345/MMBtu.

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At A Glance:

  • Production falls to 97 Bcf/d
  • Forecasts for mixed demand
  • NGI models draw of 41 Bcf

Spot gas prices also retreated ahead of the week, with NGI’s Spot Gas National Avg. dropping 48.0 cents to $5.080.

The countdown to winter is on. Inventories were not yet painting a clear picture of where they could land at the end of the injection season, so traders on Friday looked to the weather models for direction on where to close out another volatile week. After some...