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Natural Gas Falls Despite Bullish Inventory Data: Here's Why

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The U.S. Energy Department's weekly inventory release showed a smaller-than-expected increase in natural gas supplies. Despite the headline beat, bearish weather predictions pointed to weakening demand and pressured the fuel’s price, which lost around 4% for the week.

About the Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report

The Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report – brought out by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) every Thursday since 2002 – includes updates on natural gas market prices, the latest storage level estimates, recent weather data and other market activities or events.

The report provides an overview of the level of reserves and their movements, thereby helping investors understand the demand/supply dynamics of natural gas. It is an indicator of current gas prices and volatility that affect businesses of natural gas-weighted companies and related support plays.

Analysis of the Data: Smaller-than-Expected Rise in Storage

Stockpiles held in underground storage in the lower 48 states rose by 51 billion cubic feet (Bcf) for the week ended Jul 6, below the consensus market guidance of 60 Bcf gain. Moreover, the injection was lower than both the 5-year (2013–2017) average addition of 77 Bcf for the reported week and last year’s build of 59 Bcf.

Following past week’s decline, the current storage remains well below benchmarks. At 2.203 trillion cubic feet (Tcf), current natural gas inventories are 519 Bcf (19.1%) under the five-year average and 725 Bcf (24.8%) below the year-ago figure.

Fundamentally speaking, total supply of natural gas averaged around 87.1 Bcf per day, down by 0.7% on a weekly basis due to slight decrease in production and lower Canadian imports. Meanwhile, daily consumption fell 1% to 77 Bcf on lower power generation demand. This was partly offset by higher natural gas usage for residential and commercial cooling requirements.

Despite the positive storage report, natural gas prices lost 3.7% last week to settle at $2.752 per MMBtu on Friday. Investors were spooked by forecasts of cooler-than-normal weather that could lead to decrease in the cooling fuel’s demand.

Positive Long-Term Thesis

The fundamentals of natural gas continue to be favorable in the long run, considering the secular shift to the cleaner burning fuel for power generation globally and in the Asia-Pacific region in particular.

The EIA predicts global demand for the commodity to grow 43% from 2015 to 2040. Countries in Asia and in the Middle East – led by China’s transition away from coal – will account for most of this increase.

And it is the world’s largest gas producer U.S., which has emerged as one of the key players – competing with Russia and Australia among others – to meet this soaring demand. With domestic prices struggling to break the $3 per million Btu threshold, U.S. natural gas companies see a big opportunity in selling cheap U.S. production at attractive enough prices to rest of the world. In fact, more than 50% of the domestic volume growth in the near future will be used for export in the form of liquefied natural gas (LNG). As per Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA), the United States will vie with Australia and Qatar as the top LNG exporter by 2022.

New pipelines to Mexico, together with large-scale liquefied gas export facilities like Cheniere Energy, Inc.’s Sabine Pass terminal and Dominion Energy Inc.’s (D - Free Report) newly constructed Cove Point export plant, have meant that exports out of the U.S. are set for a quantum leap.

As per the Energy Department, gross liquefied natural gas exports are set to average 3 Bcf per day in 2018, increasing nearly 60% from last year. Apart from surging exports, the replacement of coal-fired power plants and higher consumption from industrial projects will likely ensure strong natural gas demand.

Finally, if the upcoming (2018-2019) winter turns out to be colder-than-normal, the surge in expected demand in the face of relative deficit of natural gas inventory could trigger a large rally in the commodity's price.

Want to Own a Natural Gas Stock Now?

The secular tailwinds mentioned above could see natural gas eventually settle well above the $3 per MMBtu mark before the end of the winter. The perceived price strength augurs well for natural gas-heavy upstream companies like Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation , Chesapeake Energy Corporation (CHK - Free Report) , Southwestern Energy Company (SWN - Free Report) and Eclipse Resources Corporation .

However, if you are looking for a near term natural gas play, Comstock Resources, Inc. (CRK - Free Report) may be a good selection. This company has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Comstock is engaged in the exploration and production of oil and natural gas properties concentrated primarily in two regions in Texas and Louisiana. The company’s production consists of more than 90% natural gas. In the last 60 days, three earnings estimates moved north, while none moved south for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings has risen 153% in the same period.

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