U.S. energy firms likely pulled a bigger-than-usual 374 billion cubic feet of natural gas from storage last week as an Arctic freeze boosted heating demand, according to the average estimate in a Reuters poll released on Wednesday.
That figure compares with a draw of 195 bcf during the same week a year ago, and a five-year average decline of 190 bcf for this time of year. If correct, last week’s withdrawal would be the biggest on record, topping the current all-time high of 359 bcf in January 2018.
In the prior week ended January 23, utilities withdrew 242 bcf of gas from storage.
If correct, the forecast for the week ended January 30 would decrease stockpiles to 2.449 trillion cubic feet. That would be about 1.1% above the same week a year ago and about 1.6% below the five-year average for the week.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration is scheduled to release its weekly storage report at 10:30 a.m. EST (1530 GMT) on Thursday.
There were about 239 heating degree days last week, compared with a 30-year normal of 172 for the period, data from financial firm LSEG showed.
HDDs measure the number of degrees a day’s average temperature is below 65 degrees Fahrenheit (18 Celsius) to estimate demand to heat homes and businesses.
Reuters polled 11 analysts, whose estimates ranged from withdrawals of 315 bcf to 385 bcf, with a median decrease of 375 bcf.
Early estimates for the week ending February 6 ranged from withdrawals of 215 bcf to 281 bcf, with an average decrease of 249 bcf.
Those figures compare with a withdrawal of 111 bcf during the same week last year and a five-year average decrease of 146 bcf.
Following is a list of poll participants. All figures are in billion cubic feet:
Organization Forecasts in bcf C H Guernsey -315 Baker & O’Brien -358 SMC Report -365 Gelber & Associates -374 Energy Ventures Analysis -374 DTN -375 Natural Gas Intelligence -379 Price Futures Group -380 StoneX Group Inc -381 Tradition Energy -382 LSEG -385
(Reporting by Sarah Qureshi in Bengaluru; editing by Scott DiSavino and Nick Zieminski)