Natural Gas Futures Rally Continues After Chesapeake Announces Cuts — Midday Market Snapshot
- Natural gas futures up sharply through midday trading, with March Nymex contract 19.7 cents higher at $1.773/MMBtu as of 2:21 p.m. ET
- Rally sparked by Chesapeake Energy Corp. announcing 2024 production cuts; company guiding for 2.65-2.75 Bcf/d in 2024, reflecting 22% year/year decline
- Per Gelber & Associates analysts, “The move is likely exacerbated by short-covering, as the sustained downtrend had previously made shorting an attractive bet for speculators and managed money”
- Southwestern Energy Co. to release 4Q2024 results on Thursday
- Seasonally light storage withdrawal on tap for this week’s U.S. Energy Information Administration storage report; Reuters survey shows minus-64 Bcf median, versus 168 Bcf five-year average pull
- Production down around 1 Bcf/d to 103.2 Bcf/d in latest Wood Mackenzie estimates; LNG demand at 12.6 Bcf/d, versus 13.0 Bcf/d Tuesday
- Wood Mackenzie observing declines in deliveries to Sabine Pass LNG terminal in recent days, including 401,981 MMBtu/d reduction associated with Transco maintenance
- Cash prices climb but generally discounted versus Nymex front month; Henry Hub spot averaging $1.600, up 9.5 cents, per NGI’s MidDay Price Alert
- National Weather Service calling for “spring-like warmth east of the Rockies into late week”
- Northeast Regional Avg. off 22.0 cents day/day, MidDay Price Alert data show