US natural gas futures eased to $5.3 US natural gas futures on forecasts for slightly lower demand next week and after the Energy Information Administration reported a bigger than expected storage build last week. The EIA said utilities added just 83 billion cubic feet of gas into storage during the week ended September 10th, above market forecasts for a 76-bcf build. Still, prices remain not far from an over 7-1/2-year high of $5.5/mmBtu amid soaring demand for US exports as global prices surge while almost 40% of gas production in the Gulf of Mexico remains shut-in due to Hurricane Ida. In the UK, gas futures jumped about 18% on Wednesday to break another record after a fire shut down a major cable bringing power from France. Elsewhere, gas in Europe was trading around $25/mmBtu as flows from top supplier Russia and Norway have been limited, and there is a competition with Asia, where prices near $19/mmBtu, to catch liquified natural gas cargoes.
Historically, Natural gas reached an all time high of 15.78 in December of 2005. Natural gas - data, forecasts, historical chart - was last updated on September of 2021.
Natural gas is expected to trade at 4.71 USD/MMBtu by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. Looking forward, we estimate it to trade at 4.05 in 12 months time.