Thunderstorms

August natural gas is set to open unchanged Thursday morning at $2.66 as traders await storage data that is expected to confirm the pervasive contraction in the storage surplus. Overnight oil markets were mixed.

July natural gas is expected to open 4 cents lower Friday morning at $2.11 as traders see downside price targets still in play and no immediate threats to an oversupplied market. Overnight oil markets fell.

Friday deliveries of physical natural gas on average were unchanged in Thursday’s trading as most traders elected to get their deals done ahead of what can often turn into a market broadside once the Energy Information Administration (EIA) releases storage figures at 10:30 a.m. EDT.

Widespread showers and thunderstorms that would continue through the weekend in many areas, along with several cold fronts, kept cooling demand for gas light Friday. That and the usual decline of industrial load during a weekend led to lower prices at most points.

Although air conditioning load in the South will slacken Friday under a widespread set of thunderstorms and weather-related demand remains scarce elsewhere, cash prices made it a solid four-for-four days of bullish performance so far this week Thursday.

Severe thunderstorms knocked out multiple natural gas processing plants near Empress, AB, on Tuesday evening, affecting several Bcf/d of processing capacity and significant production of ethane, propane and other gas liquids. TransCanada PipeLines said six processing plants and related operations lost power and suffered some damage, including plants owned by ConocoPhillips, EnCana, Atco, Inter Pipeline and BP Canada. No injuries were reported in any of the outages.