Storm

October natural gas futures were down about 6.4 cents at around $2.852/MMBtu in early morning trading Tuesday as a combination of near-term tropical weather and longer-term seasonality posed downside risks for demand.

Harvey, downgraded to a tropical storm after barreling into South Texas as a Category 4 hurricane Friday night, continued to rain destruction on the Gulf Coast Monday, with catastrophic downpours disrupting lives and shuttering the energy breadbasket of the United States. The storm was expected to continue battering the coast through much of the week, leaving the Houston-Galveston region swimming in more than four feet of accumulated rainfall.

ExxonMobil Corp., Royal Dutch Shell plc and Anadarko Petroleum Corp. had curbed natural gas and oil production at facilities in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) as Hurricane Harvey was intensifying Thursday, bearing down on the Texas coast.

July natural gas is expected to open 2 cents higher Thursday morning at $2.91 as the ongoing theme of summer heat continues and traders anticipate the release of bullish government storage figures. Overnight oil markets rose.

October natural gas is set to open 3 cents higher Friday morning at $2.82 as traders assess the loss of demand from now-Tropical Storm Hermine and start calculating a new set of storage builds going forward after Thursday’s surprise Energy Information Administration inventory report. Overnight oil markets rebounded.

September got off to a decidedly bearish start as a much larger-than-expected natural gas storage injection and the upcoming holiday weekend combined to pull natural gas forwards markets down by an average of more than 10 cents between Aug. 26 and Sept. 1, according to NGI’s Forward Look.

Tensions eased in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) Thursday, with shut-in numbers declining and workers preparing to head back to platforms, as Hermine, upgraded to hurricane status, made its long-awaited move toward the Florida coast.

Tropical Storm Hermine — upgraded from Tropical Depression Nine on Wednesday afternoon — was nearly immobile about 395 miles south-southwest of Apalachicola, FL, but forecasters expected it to begin moving to the northeast on Thursday.

September natural gas is set to open 3 cents higher Tuesday morning at $2.71 as weather forecasts again turned warmer and the tropical Atlantic added another storm. Overnight oil markets fell.