NEW YORK — The nation’s natural gas supplies rose last week, the government said Thursday.
The Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration reported that natural gas in storage grew by 24 billion cubic feet to 3.241 trillion cubic feet for the week ended Aug. 3.
Analysts expected a rise of 27 billion to 31 billion cubic feet, according to a survey by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.
The inventory level was 13.5 percent above the five-year average of 2.855 trillion cubic feet, and 16.8 percent above last year’s level of 2.776 trillion cubic feet, according to the government data.
Natural gas rose 17 cents, or 5.8 percent, to $3.10 per 1,000 cubic feet in New York.
| Beginning with the report period for the week ending March 16, 2012, EIA is including salt dome and nonsalt-dome subtotals for the Producing Region in the Summary section. The sum of the components may not equal the total for the Producing Region, because of independent rounding. |
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Summary Working gas in storage was 3,261 Bcf as of Friday, August 10, 2012, according to EIA estimates. This represents a net increase of 20 Bcf from the previous week. Stocks were 442 Bcf higher than last year at this time and 363 Bcf above the 5-year average of 2,898 Bcf. In the East Region, stocks were 118 Bcf above the 5-year average following net injections of 29 Bcf. Stocks in the Producing Region were 174 Bcf above the 5-year average of 930 Bcf after a net withdrawal of 4 Bcf. Stocks in the West Region were 71 Bcf above the 5-year average after a net drawdown of 5 Bcf. At 3,261 Bcf, total working gas is above the 5-year historical range.Working gas stocks in the Producing Region, for the week ending August 10, 2012, totaled 1,104 Bcf, with 220 Bcf in salt cavern facilities and 883 Bcf in nonsalt cavern facilities. Working gas stocks decreased 6 Bcf in the salt cavern facilities and increased 2 Bcf in the nonsalt cavern facilities since August 03. An historical series of the salt and nonsalt subtotals of the Producing Region is available for download at:wngsr_producing_region_salt.xls. |
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| Note: The shaded area indicates the range between the historical minimum and maximum values for the weekly series from 2007 through 2011. Source: Form EIA-912, “Weekly Underground Natural Gas Storage Report.” The dashed vertical lines indicate current and year-ago weekly periods. |
