Encouragement

With a little encouragement from the petroleum complex’s sizeable losses on the day, January natural gas futures found their way below the $7.40 level briefly before settling at $7.413, down 20.7 cents on the day. Attention now turns to the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) natural gas storage report release Thursday morning, where there are still more questions than answers.

With a little encouragement from the petroleum complex’s sizeable losses on the day, January natural gas futures found their way below the $7.40 level briefly before settling at $7.413, down 20.7 cents on the day. Attention now turns to the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) natural gas storage report release Thursday morning, where there are still more questions than answers.

Those of a bullish bent found encouragement all around Tuesday:July natural gas futures challenged unprecedented heights whilecrude oil futures edged back above $32/bbl; heat waves challengedelectric grid operators in both the East and West; and priorestimates of this afternoon’s storage report indicated a consensusthat the year-on-year deficit will just keep growing and adding tothe refill challenge.

Cash traders in markets outside the West, taking encouragementfrom patches of cold weather (both existing and predicted) and ascreen that briefly tested the waters above $3 Friday morning,pushed weekend prices higher by about a nickel in the Gulf Coastand Midcontinent/Midwest to more than a dime in the Northeast.