Natural gas futures fell for the first time in five days after a government report showed that U.S. stockpiles rose to a record last week.
Gas inventories increased 19 billion cubic feet in the week ended Nov. 5 to 3.84 trillion cubic feet, the Energy Department said today. Analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg showed a gain of 24 billion. A survey of Bloomberg users showed an increase of 23 billion.
“The storage number is going to be a negative factor for gas prices and forward production,” said
Carl Neill, an energy consultant at Risk Management Inc. in Atlanta. “You will continue to see a decreasing rig count.”
Natural gas for December delivery fell 11.2 cents, or 2.7 percent, to $4.098 per million British thermal units at 12:10 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gas traded at $4.144 before the storage number was released at noon in Washington.
The Energy Department reported the weekly data one day earlier than usual because of the Veterans Day holiday tomorrow.
The number of gas drilling rigs in the U.S. fell by 12 to 955 in the week ended Nov. 5, according to Houston-based Baker Hughes Inc. The total was 30 percent higher than a year earlier.
Last week’s storage increase was smaller than the five-year average gain of 30 billion cubic feet, department data showed. A surplus to the five-year average fell to 9.8 percent from 10.2 percent the previous week. A surplus to year-earlier supplies narrowed to 0.8 percent from 1 percent.
March Estimate
Gas stockpiles will total 1.776 trillion cubic feet at the end of the winter heating season in March, up about 114 billion cubic feet from a year earlier, the Energy Department estimated yesterday in its
monthly Short-Term Energy Outlook.
Marketed gas production will average 61.49 billion cubic feet a day this year, up from 61.29 billion estimated in October, the department said in the report. Consumption will average 65 billion cubic feet a day, down from 65.16 billion estimated in October.
Temperatures will be below average next week across much of the U.S., according to the National Weather Service.
Chicago will have a low of 19 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 7 Celsius) on Nov. 20, 13 degrees below normal, according to
AccuWeather Inc. in State College, Pennsylvania. New York will have a low of 31 degrees, 9 degrees below normal.
About 52 percent of U.S. households use natural gas for heating, according to the Energy Department.