Elliott Gue - 2.28.08 - The Energy Strategist

Personal Finance: Natural gas inventories were off 151 billion cubic feet this week. That's a slightly larger-than-expected drawdown and above the average drawdown for this week. Natural gas inventories have been bloated for two years, capping all rallies in the commodity. But now, natural gas storage levels are as close to average as they've been in 2 years.

This is yet another bullish report for natural gas -- the 12-month NYMEX strip now stands at $9.70 per million BTUs. Yet, US natural gas prices are still below prevailing prices in Europe and Asia -- the current strip in the UK is at 54 perce per therm, the equivalent of about $10.50/MMBTU. That means that imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) should remain subdued, helping to further normalize inventories. Below I offer a more complete analysis in video format and a chart of the current natural gas inventory situation.

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• mmbtu
• eia
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