BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 21. US underground natural gas storage will reach a total of 3,854 billion cubic feet (Bcf) by the end of October, Trend reports.
According to the estimations made by the US Energy Information Administration Agency (EIA), as the summer injection season gives way to the winter heating season, US gas storage will increase by 6 percent over the five-year average from 2018 to 2022.
The EIA forecast indicates that natural gas inventories are set to grow by approximately 360 Bcf in October. This increase is driven by the combination of US dry natural gas production reaching nearly 105 Bcf/d and a decline in overall U.S. natural gas demand, influenced by the shift in seasonal temperature patterns during October.
At the start of the injection season, natural gas inventories boasted a surplus of 19 percent compared to the five-year average, the agency noted. However, over the past 13 weeks, net injections into US underground storage have consistently fallen below the five-year average, causing storage levels to approach the five-year average.
The EIA forecast reveals that this will result in the highest US natural gas inventories entering the winter heating season since 2020 and the fourth-highest in the last decade.