The EIA announced a 237 Bcf withdrawal for the week ended Dec. 23, the largest withdrawal for this week over the past 5 years. The draw was again in the high end of market expectations this week. The full range of forecasts ahead of the release was -198 to -243. The 237 Bcf draw compares to a 50 Bcf draw reported last year and the 5-year average of 80 Bcf.

Despite the larger-than-expected draw, the storage report is bearish as prices are down this morning. Prompt month (Feb17) is currently trading down 9 cents to 3.8/MMBtu, at time of writing.
Working gas storage inventories dropped to 3.360 Tcf, level 79 Bcf below the 5-year average and 413 Bcf below last year and 5-year high. See Drillinginfo EIA’s chart below.

Following this week’s warmth, another cold front is forecasted for the U.S. Today’s losses on prices are likely due to consolidation following yesterday’s run up on expiration of the January contract, but prices are expected to continue to rise as inventories are back to normal levels, production is not growing and higher demand due to cold weather.