MCX Natural Gas prices settled up 0.33% at 153.2 on forecasts calling for a little colder weather in late January despite a government report showing a smaller-than-expected storage draw last week.
Natural Gas Weather Forecast
Meteorologists projected the weather in the Lower 48 states will turn to colder-than-usual from Jan. 16-18 before returning to normal through Jan. 24.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said utilities pulled 44 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas from storage during the week ended Jan. 3, lower than the 53 bcf draw forecasted.
It was the smallest weekly draw during the month of January since 2006, according to federal data, and was well below a five-year (2015-19) average reduction of about 169 bcf for the period.
The decrease for the week ended Jan. 3 cut stockpiles to 3.148 trillion cubic feet (tcf), 2.4% above the five-year average of around 3.074 tcf for this time of year.
Natural Gas production in the Lower 48 U.S. states edged up to 95.5 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) on Wednesday from 95.4 bcfd on Tuesday, according to Refinitiv.
