Happy Storage Day.

The EIA reported a withdrawal of -125 Bcf of natural gas from storage for the week ending December 13. Still a big withdrawal, but not as big as last week’s -190 Bcf. Expectations were for a withdrawal of -126 to -130 Bcf, so this is basically in-line with expectations. This compares to last year’s withdrawal of -92 Bcf and the five-year average of -78 Bcf.

Last week’s storage report of -190 Bcf was very far off from estimates.  Sometimes the report plays catch-up after a big miss (one week a heavy withdrawal, and the next week a light withdrawal) but that didn’t happen with this report. Last week had a very wide range of forecasts so there was some uncertainty in the consensus.

Looking ahead, next week’s report should be more in line with ‘normal’, and the reports for the end of the month should have withdrawals much smaller than normal as the warm weather reduces heating demand.

The US National Weather Service (NOAA) released their three-month forward forecasts this morning, and it looks like the rest of the winter will be average temperatures, with some areas warmer than normal. Remember that this is for the rest of winter as a whole, and we should see some cold snaps along the way.

Finally, it would appear that Elon Musk and Donald Trump have persuaded lawmakers to reject the compromise spending bill to keep the US government funded, so the House has a few days to craft another compromise bill to avoid a shutdown this weekend. Everyone south of the boarder is on their toes.