U.S. utilities likely added a smaller-than-usual 39 billion cubic feet (bcf) of natural gas to storage as hot weather boosted the amount of gas power companies burned to meet air conditioning use last week, a Reuters poll showed on Wednesday.
That injection, for the week ending Aug 5, compares with a build of 44 bcf during the same week a year ago and a five-year (2017-2021) average injection of 45 bcf.
The expected smaller-than-normal build came even though the ongoing shutdown of the Freeport liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plant in Texas has left some gas in the United States for utilities to inject into storage.
The Freeport facility, the second-biggest U.S. LNG export plant, was consuming about 2 billion cubic feet per day of gas before it shut on June 8.
In the week ended July 29, utilities added 41 bcf of gas to storage.
The injection analysts forecast for the week ended Aug 5 would lift stockpiles to 2.496 trillion cubic feet (tcf), about 12.1% below the five-year average and 9.9% below the same week a year ago.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration will release its weekly storage report at 10:30 a.m. EDT (1430 GMT) on Thursday.
There were around 107 cooling degree days (CDDs) last week, which was much more than the 30-year normal of 88 CDDs for the period, data from Refinitiv showed.
CDDs, used to estimate demand to cool homes and businesses, measure the number of degrees a day’s average temperature is above 65 degrees Fahrenheit (18 C).
Reuters polled 13 analysts, whose estimates ranged from injections of 44 bcf to 30 bcf, with a median forecast of 40 bcf.
Early estimates for the week ending Aug. 12 ranged from injections of 52 bcf to 25 bcf, with a mean increase of 38 bcf.
That compares with an injection of 46 bcf during the same week last year and a five-year average of 47 bcf.