By Paulo Trevisani
U.S. government natural gas data due Thursday are expected to show inventories increased last week, but at a reduced pace that keeps national stockpiles falling closer to historic levels.
The Energy Information Administration is expected to report that gas in storage rose by 79.8 billion cubic feet during the week ended Oct. 13, according to the average forecast of 10 analysts, brokers and traders surveyed by The Wall Street Journal.
Estimates range from increases of 76 bcf to 84 bcf. The average forecast compares with a rise of 113 bcf for the same week last year, and a five-year average increase of 85 bcf.
The EIA is scheduled to release its natural gas storage data for the week at 10:30 a.m. ET Thursday.
An 79.8-bcf increase would mean gas stockpiles totaled around 3.61 trillion cubic feet, which would be up 8.5% from last year’s total at this time, and a 4.6% surplus compared with the five-year average.
U.S. natural gas production reached record highs earlier this year as mild winter and slowing economic activity caused dented demand. The inventory surplus climbed to 24% above normal in the spring.
Consumption rose during this year’s hot summer while production fell in recent weeks, leading to a steady narrowing of the inventory surplus.
Write to Paulo Trevisani at [email protected]
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