NATGAS: Henry Hub Pulls Back With Focus Still on Freeport LNG

Henry Hub front month is trading lower with focus on the slow return of Freeport LNG terminal from outage despite a rally yesterday after small storage injections last week.

• The EIA weekly gas inventories for the week ending July 12 showed a below expected injection of 10bcf compared to the seasonal normal injection of 49bcf. US storage inventories however still show a strong surplus of 465bcf above the previous five year average of 2,744bcf.
• US LNG export terminal feedgas flows are today up to 11.39bcf/d according to Bloomberg with Freeport supply up to 0.76bcf/d, equivalent to the operation of one of the three trains. Analysts say Freeport has cancelled between 7-10 cargoes as a result of delays with the number expected to grow, Reuters said.
• US domestic natural gas production was at 101.9bcf/d yesterday just below the average from the previous week of 102.2bcf/d.
• Domestic natural gas demand is at 75.7bcf/d today to hold just above the previous seasonal five year average. The latest weather forecast is relatively unchanged on the day with below normal in central areas and Gulf Coast region and above normal in the west in the 6-10 day period.
• Export flows to Mexico are today at 7.1bcf/d according to Bloomberg.
• Nymex Henry Hub daily aggregate traded futures volume was up to 533k on July 18.
  • US Natgas AUG 24 down 2.5% at 2.07$/mmbtu
  • US Natgas JAN 25 down 1.1% at 3.54$/mmbtu
  • US Natgas JUL 25 down 0.1% at 3.23$/mmbtu