After a federal report confirmed a storage build in line with market expectations, natural gas had a sharp decline of -3.61%, settling at 218. U.S. utilities increased their gas storage by 64 billion cubic feet (bcf), closely matching the predicted 67 bcf increase, according to the EIA (U.S. Energy Information Administration). A 10-week low of 100.6 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) was reached in September when gas production fell to 102.1 bcfd.
This decline was driven by things like maintenance at the Cove Point LNG facility in Maryland and less operations at Cheniere Energy’s LNG Sabine Pass in Louisiana. Despite these variations, gas flows to U.S. LNG export facilities had been rising, especially with the Texas facility of Freeport LNG operating again close to capacity.
However, due to maintenance and reductions at some LNG facilities, daily feed gas dropped to a three-week low of 11.6 bcfd. Looking ahead, meteorologists predict near-normal weather conditions in the lower 48 states until about September 30, then a stretch of warmer-than-normal weather from October 1 to 6.
