POLL-U.S. natural gas stocks seen down 162 bcf in week to Feb. 15 - Reuters News
20-Feb-2019 02:52:48 PM
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Feb 20 (Reuters) - U.S. utilities likely withdrew a larger-than-normal 162 billion cubic feet (bcf) of natural gas from storage last week as cooler-than-usual weather increased heating demand.
The drawdown for the week ended Feb. 15 compared with a year-ago withdrawal of 134 bcf and a five-year average decrease of 148 bcf for the period.
Utilities removed 78 bcf from storage in the week ended Feb. 8. (Full Story)
If estimates are on target, the decline would cut stockpiles to 1.720 trillion cubic feet (tcf), the lowest for that week since 2014.
That would be about 3 percent below the same week a year ago and about 17 percent below the five-year average.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration will release its weekly storage report at 10:30 a.m. EST (1530 GMT) on Thursday.
There were 189 heating degree days last week, compared with 164 HDDs in the same week a year ago and a 30-year norm of 181 HDDs for the period.
HDDs measure the number of degrees a day's average temperature is below 65 Fahrenheit (18 Celsius) and is used to estimate demand to heat homes and businesses.
Reuters polled 17 analysts, with withdrawal estimates ranging from 181 bcf to 104 bcf, and a median drawdown of 167 bcf.
Early estimates for the week ending Feb. 22 ranged from withdrawals of 168 bcf to 138 bcf, with an average of 157 bcf. That compares with a decline of about 85 bcf for the same week last year and a five-year average decrease of around 104 bcf.
The following is a list of the poll's participants; all figures are in bcf:


Organization	Forecasts (in bcf)
INTL FCStone	-181
Tradition Energy	-172
Energy Aspects	-171
Energy Ventures Analysis	-171
Macquarie Group	-171
PIRA Energy	-170
Interfax Energy’s Global Gas Analytics 	-169
Refinitiv*	-169
PointLogic	-167
Stephen Smith Energy	-164
Gelber & Associates	-162
ENGIE Insight	-155
EMI DTN	-152
SMC Report	-150
Ritterbusch Associates	-150
Citi Futures	-142
C H Guernsey	-104

*Formerly Thomson Reuters Supply Chain & Commodities Research (SC&CR)