Hurricane

September natural gas is expected to open 2 cents lower Friday morning at $2.93 as traders view the impact of Hurricane Harvey largely as one of limiting demand. Overnight oil markets rose.

It’s been 12 long, relatively quiet years since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which at their highest intensity both ranked as Category 5 storms, washed across the U.S. Gulf of Mexico (GOM) and destroyed natural gas and platforms and onshore infrastructure.

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) on Tuesday was tracking a tropical storm in the central Gulf of Mexico (GOM) and another, weakening storm off the northern coast of South America, and both could pose threats to U.S. offshore natural gas and oil operations.

The expiring June natural gas contract is expected to open a penny higher Friday morning at $3.19 as traders note little downside to an oversupplied market. Overnight oil markets were narrowly lower.

The 2017 Atlantic hurricane season, which officially begins June 1, is likely to have above-normal activity, according to forecasters at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Climate Prediction Center.

A potential El Nino event — warmer-than-normal water temperatures in the Pacific Ocean near the equator — is likely to limit the production of tropical storms in the Atlantic Ocean this year, resulting in below-average hurricane activity, according to a pair of prominent weather forecasters.

Hurricane Matthew continued to batter Florida’s east coast Friday, knocking out electricity to hundreds of thousands, resulting in a 0.5 Bcf/d drop in natural gas demand in the state, but the longer-term impact on natural gas facilities seemed slight.

Three-day deals became a tough sell in Friday’s trading as Hurricane Matthew moved up the Florida coast, and gas for weekend and Monday delivery fell by double-digits, although most points declined by a dime or less.

Next-day natural gas bounded higher in Thursday’s trading despite the tendency for physical traders to attempt to get deals done ahead of the 10:30 a.m. EDT release of inventory data by the Energy Information Administration (EIA).