January natural-gas futures closed down 5.6 cents to $7.671 per million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange after a low of $7.58. The contract has traded or closed at levels this low since Sept. 28.
O
n Wednesday, the price fell to a low of $7.60, but recovered to post a gain and halt a four-session losing streak.
n Wednesday, the price fell to a low of $7.60, but recovered to post a gain and halt a four-session losing streak.
Natural-gas inventories fell 11 billion cubic feet for the week ended Dec. 1, the Energy Department reported Thursday.
Global Insight was looking for a bigger decline of 25 billion. But Analysts at Strategic Energy & Economic Research expected the report to show a decline of 8 billion cubic feet.
The data compares with a fall of 58 billion last year and a five-year average decline of 63 billion, according to SEER.
"This is a very light draw from storage for this time of year, and is a direct reflection of how light weather-driven demand has been this fall and early winter," said Ben Smith, a managing partner at First Enercast Financial.
"At least the reduction in natural-gas price this week shows the market is finally responding to all this warm weather we've experienced over the past month," he said, noting that "even this last winter storm that swept the Midwest was quick and is again being replaced with warmer than average temperatures."
Total stocks now stand at 3.406 trillion cubic feet, up 232 billion cubic feet from the year-ago level, and 282 billion cubic feet above the five-year average, the government data said.
"The only support for gas is the anticipation for next weeks' numbers, which should be more normal because of the cold front that moved through the U.S," said James Williams, an economist at WTRG Economics.
But "weather forecasts for the next few weeks are for warmer-than-normal temperatures, which should feed a generally bearish sentiment," he said.
