Natural Gas Prices Rise After A Weeklong Drop to Almost Two-year Lows

Natural gas prices inched up on Monday as buyers emerged at the lower level for the heating fuel, which had been pummeled to more than two-year lows by a selloff spurred by a forecast of a relatively mild winter for the 2022/23 season.

The March front-month gas contract on the Henry Hub of the New York Mercantile Exchange recovered nearly all of its Friday losses to end up 4.7 cents, or 1.8%, at $2.457 per mmBtu, or metric million British thermal units. In the previous session, it reached a session low of $2.343, hitting a low not seen since December 29, 2020, when it dipped to $2.282.

The benchmark gas futures contract dropped about 16% last week, extending its decline from December's $7 high to more than 60%. Prior to that, in August it reached a 14-year high of $10.

An unexpectedly warm start to winter 2022/23 in the United States has resulted in significantly less heating demand than usual, leaving more gas in storage than anticipated. Despite this, temperatures between Friday and Saturday averaged at or below 20 degrees Fahrenheit (-6.7 degrees Celsius) in New York City and other significant cities in the U.S. Northeast, the largest heating market in the country.

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that gas stocks in the United States for the week ending January 27 totaled 2.58 trillion cubic feet (tcf). According to the EIA, this is up 9.4% from the previous year's level of 2,361 tcf. On February 9, the agency will provide its next storage update.