Summer outlook

The U.S. natural gas market is carrying about an 850-Bcf surplus in storage versus last year and the 5-year average.  But it looks like the surplus will finally start to contract in earnest over the next few weeks. So the big question is -- will it be fast enough to prevent crippling supply congestion by this fall? With Canadian storage inventories also high and U.S. gas production still averaging slightly higher than last year, it seems record demand will be needed to bring storage into balance. Today we look at the prospects for demand this summer to trump last year’s record demand.

With the first month of storage injection season now behind us, the weekly storage report from Energy Information Administration (EIA) shows U.S. natural gas stocks at about 850 Bcf higher than last year. While the surplus vs. 2015 has contracted from over 1,000 Bcf at the start of injection season April 1, it has a long way to go before the gas market is out of the woods, and prices are reflecting that. The CME/NYMEX Henry Hub contract for June delivery settled Wednesday at $2.141/MMBtu, down 68 (24%) from last year, and the balance-of-summer strip is priced at an average $2.408/MMBtu as of yesterday’s settles, 48 cents (17%) lower than a year ago. Given the sheer size of the overhang at this point, the pace of the surplus contraction will be at least as important to price direction as the fact that it is contracting.  Today we look at the various supply and demand factors that could either help or hinder the market to whittle down the storage surplus this summer.