By Paulo Trevisani
Natural gas inventories likely fell last week, as a cold shot increased heating demand.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration won’t publish its Weekly Petroleum Status Report on Thursday, due to a system update. The EIA will continue to collect data for the report and will publish two weeks of official statistics on Nov. 16.
The EIA is expected to report that natural gas in storage declined by 6.5 billion cubic feet during the week ended Nov. 3, according to the average forecast of six analysts, brokers and traders surveyed by The Wall Street Journal.
Estimates range from an 18 bcf withdrawal to a 3 bcf build. The average forecast compares with a rise of 83 bcf for the same week last year and a five-year average increase of 36 bcf.
A 6.5 bcf decline would mean gas stockpiles totaled around 3.8 trillion cubic feet, which would be up about 5.7% from last year’s total at this time and a 4.5% surplus compared with the five-year average.
U.S. natural gas production this year has been ahead of national demand, which has been limited by a mild winter and slowing economic activity. The inventory surplus climbed to 24% above normal in the spring, before a hot summer boosted consumption, narrowing the surplus.
Natural gas futures were falling 1.5% to $3.092/mmBtu.
Write to Paulo Trevisani at paulo.trevisani@wsj.com
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