Weekly US gas storage withdrawal surpasses analyst forecast at 206 Bcf

Storage operators withdrew a net 206 Bcf from natural gas inventories in the Lower 48 in the week ended Jan. 14, compared to the five-year-average pull of 167 Bcf, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported.

The pull, which surpassed the 193 Bcf forecast by an S&P Global Platts analyst survey, brought total Lower 48 working gas supply to 2,810 Bcf, or 226 Bcf below the year-ago level and 33 Bcf above the five-year average.

By region:

* In the East, storage levels fell 61 Bcf on the week at 669 Bcf, 3% under the year before.

* In the Midwest, stockpiles dropped 65 Bcf at 770 Bcf, 8% below a year earlier.

* In the Mountain region, storage levels fell 8 Bcf at 151 Bcf, 15% below the year-ago level.

* In the Pacific region, storage levels declined 3 Bcf at 201 Bcf, 27% below the year before.

* In the South Central region, storage levels were down 69 Bcf at 1,019 Bcf, 4% under a year ago. Of that total, 308 Bcf of gas was in salt cavern facilities and 711 Bcf was in non-salt-cavern facilities. Working gas stocks fell 6.7% in salt cavern facilities from the previous week and fell 6.3% in non-salt-cavern facilities.

S&P Global Platts and S&P Global Market Intelligence are owned by S&P Global Inc.