Investing.com - U.S. natural gas futures pushed higher on Wednesday, bouncing back from heavy losses in the prior session as forecasts showing cooler weather on the way boosted the heating fuel.
U.S. natural gas for April delivery rose 3.8 cents, or around 1.3% to $2.976 per million British thermal units by 11:20AM ET (15:20GMT). Prices of the heating fuel sank 10.5 cents, or about 3.5%, on Tuesday.
Snow showers and gusty winds remain in the wake of Tuesday’s powerful winter storm that brought a wintry mess to the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, according to forecasters at NatGasWeather.com.
Temperatures are expected to remain much colder than normal through the end of the week, with highs struggling to reach the 30s, while overnight lows drop into the teens to below 0F.
A fast-moving weather system will then impact the east-central U.S. Saturday into Sunday, followed by warming Monday, but again cooling off mid-week.
Meanwhile, market participants looked ahead to weekly storage data due on Thursday, which is expected to show a draw of 60 billion cubic feet in the week ended March 10.
That compares with a withdrawal of 68 billion cubic feet in the preceding week, 1 billion a year earlier and a five-year average drop of 85 billion cubic feet.
Total natural gas in storage currently stands at 2.295 trillion cubic feet, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, 7.7% lower than levels at this time a year ago but 15.8% above the five-year average for this time of year.
Prices of the heating fuel are down around 20% so far this year as forecasts for warm winter weather weighed on heating demand expectations.
Based on data from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, this year’s extremely warm winter has pushed heating demand for natural gas to nearly 20% below average.
About half of U.S. homes use natural gas for heating.
Without significant demand for natural gas, inventories could stay near record levels and may even continue to pull prices even lower.