{"id":19333,"date":"2025-08-27T19:09:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T23:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/2025\/08\/27\/nat-gas-prices-surge-on-expectations-of-lower-than-normal-inventory-build\/"},"modified":"2025-08-27T19:09:00","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T23:09:00","slug":"nat-gas-prices-surge-on-expectations-of-lower-than-normal-inventory-build","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/2025\/08\/27\/nat-gas-prices-surge-on-expectations-of-lower-than-normal-inventory-build\/","title":{"rendered":"Nat-Gas Prices Surge on Expectations of Lower-Than-Normal Inventory Build"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"layout__region nsdq-l-grid__item syndicated-article-body\">\n<section class=\"jupiter22-c-article-body\">\n<div class=\"body\">\n<div class=\"body__content\">\n<p>September Nymex natural gas (NGU25) on Wednesday closed up +0.150 (+5.52%).<\/p>\n<p>Sep nat-gas prices on Wednesday rallied sharply to a 1-week high on anticipation that Thursday&#8217;s weekly storage report will show a lower-than-normal build in nat-gas inventories. \u00a0The consensus is that EIA nat-gas inventories rose +27 bcf for the week ended August 22, below the five-year average for this time of year of +38 bcf. \u00a0Thin trading conditions exacerbated gains in nat-gas prices as Wednesday was the last trading day for the September nat-gas futures contract. \u00a0<\/p>\n<div class=\"ads__inline\">\n<div id=\"js-dfp-tag-0rQ\"  class=\"btf-bodymidpagetwothirdswidth-1\">          <script type=\"text\/javascript\">         googletag.cmd.push(function() {             \/\/ Check if ID matches ID in the window.adsList array before calling googletag.display             function isAdInAdsList(id) {             for (var i = 0; i < window.adsList.length; i++) {                 if (window.adsList[i].id === id) {                     return true;                 }             }             return false;         }         if (isAdInAdsList('js-dfp-tag-0rQ')) {             googletag.display('js-dfp-tag-0rQ');         }         });     <\/script> <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>     <span>Don\u2019t Miss a Day: <\/span> From crude oil to coffee, sign up free for Barchart\u2019s best-in-class commodity analysis.  <\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Natural gas prices have been under pressure over the past 2.5 months, dropping to a 9.5-month low in nearest-futures prices on Monday, as forecasts for cooler late-summer weather emerged. \u00a0Forecaster Vaisala said it expects lower-than-normal temperatures to blanket the US from North Carolina to Northern California from September 4-8, which will reduce demand for natural gas to run air conditioning. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Ramped-up US nat-gas production is another bearish factor for prices. \u00a0On August 12, the EIA raised its forecast for 2025 US nat-gas production by +0.5% to 106.44 bcf\/day from July's estimate of 105.9 bcf\/day. \u00a0The EIA raised its forecast for 2026 US nat-gas production by +0.7% to 106.09 from July's 105.4 bcf\/day forecast. \u00a0US nat-gas production is currently near a record high, with active US nat-gas rigs recently posting a 2-year high.<\/p>\n<p>US (lower-48) dry gas production on Wednesday was 107.7 bcf\/day (+4.5% y\/y), according to BNEF. \u00a0Lower-48 state gas demand on Wednesday was 72.4 bcf\/day (-15.2% y\/y), according to BNEF. \u00a0Estimated LNG net flows to US LNG export terminals on Wednesday were 15.5 bcf\/day (+11.7% w\/w), according to BNEF.<\/p>\n<p>As a supportive factor for gas prices, the Edison Electric Institute reported Wednesday that US (lower-48) electricity output in the week ended August 23 rose +7.7% y\/y to 95,130 GWh (gigawatt hours), and US electricity output in the 52-week period ending August 23 rose +3.1% y\/y to 4,270,960 GWh.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ads__inline\">\n<div id=\"js-dfp-tag-VXQ\"  class=\"btf-bodymidpagetwothirdswidth-2\">          <script type=\"text\/javascript\">         googletag.cmd.push(function() {             \/\/ Check if ID matches ID in the window.adsList array before calling googletag.display             function isAdInAdsList(id) {             for (var i = 0; i < window.adsList.length; i++) {                 if (window.adsList[i].id === id) {                     return true;                 }             }             return false;         }         if (isAdInAdsList('js-dfp-tag-VXQ')) {             googletag.display('js-dfp-tag-VXQ');         }         });     <\/script> <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Last Thursday's weekly EIA report was bullish for nat-gas prices since nat-gas inventories for the week ended August 15 rose +13 bcf, below the consensus of +18 bcf and well below the 5-year weekly average of +35 bcf. \u00a0As of August 15, nat-gas inventories were down -3.0% y\/y, but were +5.8% above their 5-year seasonal average, signaling adequate nat-gas supplies. \u00a0As of August 24, gas storage in Europe was 76% full, compared to the 5-year seasonal average of 84% full for this time of year.<\/p>\n<p>Baker Hughes reported last Friday that the number of active US nat-gas drilling rigs in the week ending August 22 was unchanged at 122 rigs, just below the 2-year high of 124 rigs posted on August 1. \u00a0In the past year, the number of gas rigs has risen from the 4-year low of 94 rigs reported in September 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><i>     On the date of publication,      Rich Asplund              did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes.          For more information please view the Barchart Disclosure Policy      here. <\/i><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p> More news from Barchart <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Where are Natural Gas Prices Heading?<\/li>\n<li>Energy Commodities in Q2- Where are they Heading in Q3?<\/li>\n<li>Is a Summer Rally on the Horizon in the U.S. Natural Gas Futures Market?<\/li>\n<li>Will Natural Gas Prices Remain Elevated Throughout 2025?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"body__disclaimer\">The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p>        <script type=\"text\/javascript\">   \/\/ add oddAd class to every odd instance of body .ads__inline for different placeholder styles   let articleAds = document.querySelectorAll('.ads__inline');   for (let i = 0, len = articleAds.length; i < len; i++) {     \/\/ Do the below only if the curent count is less than 12     if ((i < 12) &#038;&#038; (i % 2 === 0)) {       articleAds[i].className += ' oddAd';     }   } <\/script>                                               <\/p>\n<div class=\"jupiter22-c-tags jupiter22-c-tags-default\">\n<h3 class=\"jupiter22-c-tags-title\">         Tags       <\/h3>\n<div class=\"jupiter22-c-tags-container\">Stocks<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>September Nymex natural gas (NGU25) on Wednesday closed up +0.150 (+5.52%). Sep nat-gas prices on Wednesday rallied sharply to a 1-week high on anticipation that Thursday&#8217;s weekly storage report will show a lower-than-normal build in nat-gas inventories. \u00a0The consensus is that EIA nat-gas inventories rose +27 bcf for the week ended August 22, below the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19334,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stock","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}