December 03, 2024 [Oil Price]- U.S. natural gas inventories are higher than average for this time of the year as America has entered the proper winter heating season with stocks at their highest level since 2016, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Monday.

Working natural gas in storage in the Lower 48 states ended the natural gas injection season with 3,922 billion cubic feet (Bcf), according to estimates based on data from EIA’s Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report.

The 2024/2025 winter heating season has now started with the most natural gas since 2016 and working natural gas in storage is currently 6% above the five-year (2019–2023) average, the EIA said.

This comes despite less-than-average injections into storage throughout the entire injection season, which runs April 1 through October 31. Less natural gas than the five-year average was injected in nearly every week during the 2024 injection season, in part because starting inventories were relatively full, the administration noted.

U.S. natural gas inventories ended the previous winter season at the end of March 2024 – the end of withdrawal season – with stocks 25% higher compared to the same time in 2023 and 40% higher than the five-year average for March, as natural gas producers had boosted production in 2023.

As a result of the lower natural gas prices due to high inventories and a mild 2023/2024 winter, U.S. natural gas producers curtailed some production in the spring.

Earlier this year, when the prices hit multi-year lows at the end of the winter and early spring, U.S. producers and pipeline operators acknowledged there was an oversupply hanging over the market. However they believe that gas will continue to be in demand domestically and internationally for decades to come.

Early on Monday, the benchmark U.S. natural gas price at Henry Hub were falling by 4.22% to $3.214 per million British thermal units (MMBtu).

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