Daily Market Update July 10, 2020
Early Morning Update
The Aug20 natural gas contract is trading flat to yesterday’s close at $1.78. The Aug20 crude oil contract is down $0.52 at $39.10.
Summary
The slide in natural gas prices continued yesterday, despite hot temperatures in the Northeast and the Southwest, dipping production, and a below-average storage injection. The August ’20 natural gas contract lost another 4.5 cents in trading on Thursday, settling at $1.779/MMBtu. The prompt month has lost just under a dime in just the past two days, after rallying almost 17 cents since its debut a little over a week ago. U.S. dry production has slipped to below 87 Bcf/d the past few days, falling 1.0 Bcf/d over the last week on the heels of declining gas rig counts, which have fallen by seven this past week to 87 total. Yesterday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported a 56 Bcf storage injection for the week to July 3. Despite being in line with market estimates, the growth in natural gas storage for the reporting week was much less than the 83 Bcf build seen last year for the same week, as well as the 68 Bcf five-year average injection. Storage levels now stand at 3,133 Bcf, 454 Bcf (17%) higher than average. The latest end-of-season estimate is 3,985 Bcf, but could change significantly by then because of uncertainties around load growth, production, and weather.
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