Daily Market Update November 29, 2018
Early Morning Update
The Jan19 natural gas contract is trading down $0.13 at $4.57. The Jan19 crude contract is up $0.81 at $51.10.
Summary
December 2018 NYMEX natural gas contract gained another 45.3 cents yesterday to settle at $4.715/MMBtu. Today, the U.S. Energy Information Administration is expected to report a 73 Bcf withdrawal for the week ended November 23, according to a survey of analysts by S&P Global Platts. A 73 Bcf draw would be more than the 35 Bcf withdrawal in the corresponding week last year, as well as the five-year average pull of 49 Bcf. The EIA reported a staggering 134 Bcf withdrawal for the week ended November 16, thus, shrinking inventories to 3.113 Tcf, which was 16.6% less than the year-ago inventory of 3.733 Tcf, and 18.6% less than the five-year average of 3.823 Tcf. On Tuesday, intraday demand hit 106.74 Bcf/d to establish a new intraday max demand for November. Wednesday looks to be last day of below-normal temperatures for the eastern half of the U.S. before we hit about a week of normal to above-normal temps for the eastern region. However, this is followed by another cold blast that covers most of the nation. Record-setting average monthly demand this month of 90.9 Bcf is significantly above the 5-year average of 77.2 Bcf/d. Any similar stretches of cold in December will not only push demand further up, but also increase the storage deficit and further intensify an already volatile NYMEX market.