By Barani Krishnan
Investing.com -- Almost there; if not today, then probably sometime this week.
The bears’ long-craved take out of natural gas’ $2 support seems only a matter of timing now as the soon-to-expire March and the most-active April gas contracts on the New York Mercantile Exchange’s Henry Hub hit new 2-½ year lows.
March gas sank to $2.057 while April reached $2.165 per mmBtu, or metric million British thermal units.
April itself settled at $2.073, down 17.5 cents, or 7.8%, on the day.
A minor support zone “near $1.98/mmBtu will likely keep prices in a tight range before another breakdown of technical support (that) could potentially send futures lower near $1.80/mmBtu,” Houston-based energy markets research service Gelber & Associates said.
An unusually warm start to the 2022/23 winter season has led to considerably less heating demand in the United States versus the norm, leaving more gas in storage than initially thought.
During the week ended Feb. 10, inventories in U.S. gas storage stood at 2.266tcf, or trillion cubic feet, up 17% from the year-ago level of 1.938 tcf, the Energy Information Administration reported on Thursday.
Responding to the warmth and lackluster storage draws, gas prices plunged from a 14-year high of $10 per mmBtu in August, reaching $7 in December and low-$2 levels this week.