US natural gas supply drops 166 Bcf

Working gas in storage was 3,400 Bcf as of Friday, December 18, 2009, according to Energy Information Administration estimates. This represents a net decline of 166 Bcf from the previous week a smaller then expected drop as analysts surveyed by Dow Jones had expected a drop of more than 170 billion cubic feet.  Stocks were 359 Bcf higher than last year at this time and 395 Bcf above the 5-year average of 3,005 Bcf. After the data, January natural gas futures lost 0.7% to $5.78 per million British thermal units. It was up more than 1% before the data.