It was another EIA Thursday for natural gas today, but an estimate that fell solidly within analyst expectations did little to move prices. Production levels that are sitting just off record highs seemed to weigh on prices, and an EIA print that showed relatively little holiday demand destruction but otherwise hit expectations did little to change that.

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The EIA announced that 51 bcf of gas was injected into storage this past week. This compared to a 5-year average of 77 bcf.

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The largest build came across the Midwest, while Salts saw another weekly draw. 

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As we had mentioned to clients throughout the week, July 4th holiday demand destruction appeared unimpressive on daily power burns, which remained quite tight on a weather-adjusted basis through last week. That is exactly what this EIA print showed as well, with very limited loosening compared to last week's print. 

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This is the second straight week where the storage injection in the East came in decently smaller than would be implied by a simple regression against the Dominion and Columbia storage numbers released on Monday.

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Still, the natural gas market was unimpressed with this lean storage injection, with the whole strip declining on the day. 

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Losses carried into J-V9 as well, with H9/J9 actually moving up on a day that the prompt month contract lost over a percent. 

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