Last week, the cold January weather led to a higher demand for heating, resulting in an expected increase in withdrawals from natural gas inventories.
Based on a survey conducted by the Wall Street Journal, 10 analysts, brokers, and traders predict that natural gas in underground storage will decrease by 163 billion cubic feet to 3,173 Bcf for the week ending January 12. This withdrawal is greater than the 140 Bcf seen the previous week and exceeds the average withdrawal of approximately 126 Bcf for the same week over the past five years.
The estimates in the survey range from a withdrawal of 144 Bcf to 182 Bcf.
The Energy Information Administration is scheduled to release its weekly storage report on Thursday at 10:30 a.m. EST.
After experiencing an increase in anticipation of winter storms that brought freezing conditions across many parts of the U.S. during the extended Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend and this week, natural gas prices have since dropped due to warmer weather expected later this month.
As of Thursday afternoon, natural gas for February delivery was priced at $2.839 per million British thermal units, reflecting a 2.1% decrease.