Natural gas futures are rising on Thursday after the US government reported a better-than-expected increase in domestic inventories of the energy commodity. But natural gas remains bearish as average or above-average seasonal temperatures impact demand volumes across the US. Is there relief in sight? February natural gas futures rose $0.03, or 1.5%, to $2.15 per million British thermal units (btu) at 15:57 GMT on Thursday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Natural gas prices are poised for a weekly decline of just under 1%, adding to its 1.5% loss so far this year. According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), domestic stockpiles tumbled by 109 billion cubic feet for the week ending January 10. The market had penciled in a drop of 92 billion cubic feet. In … [Read More...]

Futures for crude oil continued to decline today despite the fall of the US oil rig count. According to the report released by Baker Hughes during the US trading session, US drillers reduced the number of oil rigs by 11 to 659 this week. It was the third consecutive weekly decline. The number of gas rigs fell by 4 to 119. Yet the news did not stop oil prices from declining further. The major reason for that were the easing tensions in the Middle East. At the start of the week, risk aversion surged due to an Iranian attack on US military bases in response to a US drone killing a top Iranian military leader last week. But as both the United States and Iran signaled that they want to avoid … [Read More...]

Natural gas futures are rebounding to finish the holiday-shortened trading week, despite the US government reporting a smaller-than-expected decline in domestic inventories. But it is the weather, Chinese demand, and potentially Middle Eastern conflict that are playing integral roles in the energy commodity’s performance to kick off 2020. February natural gas futures rose $0.02, or 0.85%, to $2.14 per million British thermal units (btu) at 15:56 GMT on Friday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Natural gas prices will record a weekly loss of about 2.5% after posting a steep 25% drop in 2019. According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), domestic supplies of natural gas tumbled by 58 billion cubic feet for the week ending December 27, which is short of the median estimate of 67 billion cubic … [Read More...]