FxWirePro: U.S. Natural gas inventory preview

Natural gas is currently trading at $2.918 per MMBtu.

Key factors at play in natural gas market –

• Russia and the United States are set to fight for market share in Asia and in Europe.
• Japan is in focus of producers as many long-term contracts are set to expire by the end of the decade.
• Saudi led Gulf group has modified demands on Qatar to six broad principles.
• Speaking at Poland, US President Donald Trump said that the United States is planning to become an energy exporting country and called on Poland and other European nations to diversify its energy resources by taking advantage of the US energy boom.
• The US preparing to become major natural gas exporter to the United States.
• Qatar announced that it plans to increase output by 30 percent, which could be trouble for the US as Qatar is a low-cost producer.
• The United States remains the largest petroleum and natural gas producers in the world.

Now, for the inventory,

According to latest numbers, working gas in the underground storage remains at 2.973 trillion cubic feet. Stocks were 299 Billion cubic feet less than last year at this time and 141 Billion cubic feet above the five-year average. The chart from EIA shows the level of inventory. The second chart from investing.com shows weekly changes in inventory.

• Last week, the inventory increased by 28 billion cubic feet against an expectation of 32 billion cubic feet. Today 24 billion cubic feet increase expected.
• EIA will release the inventory report at 14:30 GMT.