Platts pre-report analyst survey suggests US EIA data will show a 76- to 80-Bcf addition in natural gas stocks for the latest reporting week
Washington - April 21, 2010
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) is expected Thursday to report a net injection of 76 billion cubic feet (Bcf) to 80 Bcf to natural gas storage for the week that ended April 16, according to a Platts survey of analysts.
A build within expectations would be much larger than the 42-Bcf injection in the same week of 2009 and the five-year-average of 33 Bcf, according to EIA. As a result, the 64-Bcf surplus to last year and the 246-Bcf surplus over the five-year average is expected expand.
Beyond the consensus, the broader range of analyst expectations for the latest reporting week spans builds of 69 Bcf to 90 Bcf.
Teri Viswanath, an analyst at Credit Suisse, said the mild temperatures across much of the nation have translated into an early start to the storage injection season.
But Kent Bayazitoglu, director of market analytics at Gelber & Associates, said weather this week “has been colder than originally forecasted, which is creating some additional heating demand. This will pair back injection estimates for the end of April and the beginning of May."
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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 am (EST) Thursday release of the weekly natural gas storage report of the US Energy Information Administration. Platts has been conducting this survey since January 2007. IMPORTANT NOTE TO EDITORS: The survey results attached above do not contain commentary from a Platts staff member. The survey is conducted and prepared by the Platts market news editors, but the views are those of non-Platts market analysts. The survey includes 15 to 25 analysts, some on a rotational basis. This differs from the weekly pre-report analyst survey of EIA/API US oil stocks data conducted each week by Platts Senior Oil Analyst Linda Rafield, which does include the views of Platts’ oil analyst Linda Rafield.
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