October 26, 2015 – 24/7 Wall Street
US Natural Gas Stockpile Within Reach of All-Time High
By: Paul Ausick
Natural gas for December delivery fell to a new 52-week low of $2.19 early Friday as traders come to grips with a warmer start to the traditional heating season and a near-record amount of natural gas in the nation’s stockpiles.
As of last Friday, U.S. stockpiles totaled 3.877 trillion cubic feet, just 52 billion cubic feet below the all-time high at the traditional October 31 end of the storage injection season. If the week ending Friday ends with the same injection amount as the prior week (63 billion cubic feet), a new record will be set.
Dry gas production in the lower 48 states has averaged about 73.5 billion cubic feet per day this summer, according to a report from RBN Energy. That’s about 3.1 billion cubic feet per day more than a year ago, but still better than the 5 billion cubic feet per day production increase posted in January 2015. What caused the slowdown? According to RBN Energy:
But output flattened through the first half of summer as low prices prompted producers to scale back drilling activity and curtail well completions while they waited for drilling service cost reductions and additional takeaway capacity out of the Marcellus/Utica region.
Read the full story here: http://247wallst.com/energy-economy/2015/10/30/us-natural-gas-stockpile-within-reach-of-all-time-high/
