Gas storage hits new record, but cold winter could swiftly drain inventories

摘要

US storage inventories officially hit a new record high as of the week ended September 25 - pushing to 3.589 Tcf with five reporting weeks still remaining the injection season - but already market observers are starting to warn that a particularly cold winter could quickly eat away at inventories.rnThe market has long grappled with the prospects of new storage highs, with some anticipating inventories could reach 3.9 Tcf or higher by the end of October, but "any demand on storage is going to test it pretty quickly," said MF Global broker Mike Fitzpatrick. He said the downturn in drilling rigs over the past year means there may not be sufficient production available to cover in the event of a sharp uptick in demand.