The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported Thursday morning that U.S. natural gas stocks decreased by 119 billion cubic feet for the week ending January 20. Analysts were expecting a storage decline of around 117 billion cubic feet. The five-year average for the week is a withdrawal of around 211 billion cubic feet, and last year’s storage decline for the week totaled 176 billion cubic feet. Natural gas inventories fell by 243 billion cubic feet in the week ending January 13.

Natural gas futures for March delivery traded up by about 3% in advance of the EIA’s report, at around $3.45 per million BTUs, and traded around $3.47 immediately after the data release. Natural gas closed at $3.35 per million BTUs on Wednesday, after falling from a high of $3.39 last Thursday. The 52-week range for natural gas is $2.49 to $3.90. One year ago the price for a million BTUs was around $2.76.

The mild temperatures that led to a relatively small withdrawal from storage last week is expected to give way to colder weather in all parts of the country, except the South and the West Coast. Alternating periods of warmer and cooler weather is forecast for the week ahead, with overall demand for natural gas expected to be moderate.

Stockpiles have now dropped to 12.9% below their levels of a year ago and 2.6% below the five-year average.

The EIA reported that U.S. working stocks of natural gas totaled about 2.798 trillion cubic feet, around 20 billion cubic feet below the five-year average of 2.818 trillion cubic feet and 348 billion cubic feet below last year’s total for the same period. Working gas in storage totaled 3.146 trillion cubic feet for the same period a year ago.

Here’s how share prices of the largest U.S. natural gas producers reacted to the latest report:

• Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM), the country’s largest producer of natural gas, traded down about 0.1%, at $85.23 in a 52-week range of $73.55 to $95.55.
• Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK) traded up about 1.2% to $7.22. The stock’s 52-week range is $1.50 to $8.20.
• EOG Resources Inc. (NYSE: EOG) traded up about 1.1% to $105.08. The 52-week range is $62.53 to $109.37.

In addition, the United States Natural Gas ETF (NYSEMKT: UNG) traded up about 3.9%, at $8.72 in a 52-week range of $5.78 to $9.74.

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