EIA: US natgas stored volumes are highest since 2016, as the winter heating season begins.

U.S. Energy Information Administration reported on Monday that the United States has started winter heating season with its highest level of natural gas storage since 2016.

The EIA's Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report, published in November, estimates that the working natural gas stored in Lower 48 States ended the natural injection season at 3,922 billion cubic feet.

The winter heating season is from November 1 to March 30. Meanwhile, the injection season is between April 1 and October 31.

The EIA reported that inventories are currently 6% higher than the average for the past five years (2019-23) despite lower-than-average storage injections throughout the entire season.

The EIA reported that the starting inventories of natural gas were relatively full. This led to a weekly injection volume lower than the average for the past five years.

The agency reported that the natural gas injected into storage during the last two weeks before the end of the injection period exceeded the five-year average, thus causing the storage volumes to increase.

[NGA] (Reporting by Vallari Srivastava in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai) U.S. Natural gas futures fell nearly 4% early in the morning, pressured both by an increase in production and forecasts of less cold weather that is expected to reduce heating demand in the coming week. [NGA] Reporting by Vallari Shrivastava, Bengaluru. Editing by Pooja Deai.

(source: Reuters)