North America gas weekly update: warmth brings salt injections

Warmth has quickly returned to the eastern half of the US Lower 48 post-mini polar vortex last EIA storage week. Although east of the Rockies remain very cold, the quick warm-up elsewhere is expected to result in only a double digit storage withdrawal and even injections to South Central salt storage. Henry Hub prices remain moribund, with prompt March 2019 Henry Hub prices still under $2.70/mmbtu. However, winter is not over yet, as colder weather returns in the latest short-term weather forecasts. We expect -82 bcf, -165 bcf and -180 bcf of withdrawals through February 22 to bring US Lower 48 working gas storage down to 1.53 tcf.