Platts pre-report analyst survey suggests US EIA data will a 78-to 82-Bcf withdrawal in natural gas stocks
Washington - March 9, 2011
The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) is expected Thursday to report a withdrawal of between 78 and 82 billion cubic feet (Bcf) from gas storage stocks for the week ending March 4, according to a Platts survey of analysts.
A drawdown within that range would be smaller than both the 112-Bcf pull in the same week of 2010 and the five-year-average of 107 Bcf. As a result, both the 9-Bcf storage deficit to a year ago and the five-year-average deficit of 15 Bcf are expected flip to a surplus.
Beyond the consensus, analysts’ estimates for the latest reporting week ranged from withdrawals of 70 Bcf to 88 Bcf.
Gelber & Associates analyst Jonathan Arfa said weather forecasts for March have warmed up considerably and he expects to see smaller-than-average draws over the next two weeks and the season's first injection reported for the week ending March 25.
"Spring is in the air," he said. "And our target for end-of-season [inventory] low has been raised slightly to around 1.6 Tcf [trillion cubic feet]."
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This analyst survey is conducted by Platts’ editorial team in Washington, DC and is published every Wednesday morning, one day ahead of the 10:30 a.m. (ET) Thursday release of the weekly natural gas storage report of the U. Energy Information Administration. Platts has been conducting this survey since January 2007. The survey includes 15 to 25 analysts, some on a rotational basis.
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