Weekly net natural gas deliveries tumbled last week. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (”EIA”) reported that U.S. natural gas inventories increased by 18 billion cubic feet (”Bcf”) for the week ended October 16, 2009 bringing the amount of natural gas in storage to 3,734 Bcf. Natural gas inventories were 397 Bcf higher than last year at this time and 432 Bcf above the five-year average of 3,302 Bcf.
The decrease in deliveries could be for a number of reasons. There have been cooler-than-normal temperatures possibly contributed to the below-normal rate of injections during the report week and as stated by the EIA, “Robust levels of gas in storage also likely contributed to the below-normal injections, as some pipeline companies required their interruptible storage customers to draw down working gas levels as some storage facilities approach capacity.”
NOTE: An expanded article with further comment will be posted soon.
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