The cold air could further fuel heating demand and strain natural gas supplies, which have already been depleted by the record-low temperatures across most of the country earlier this month. Over the first week of the year, 359 billion cubic feet of natural gas was withdrawn from storage, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Natural gas in storage is 12% below the five-year average.
“Storage is low—precariously low,” Bill Perkins, who runs the natural gas-focused fund Skylar Capital Management LP, told the WSJ.
Analysts argued that another round of cold weather conditions could repeat what happened earlier this month.
“The concern is in February, deliverability gets even more constrained versus the January event,” Joel Stier, a trader at StierBull Trading LLC, told the WSJ.
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