EIA Reports -12 Bcf Withdrawal Into Storage for Week Ended Nov. 28

The January NYMEX is trading near $4.95/MMBtu after a choppy storage day. The contract pushed above $5.00 early this morning, then slid toward $4.89 on the EIA print before stabilizing and drifting back to the $4.95 handle, all after yesterday’s $4.99 close. Today’s sheet looks winter-tight: dry gas production is running around 107.8 Bcf/d, with Canadian imports rebounding into the mid-7s Bcf/d and LNG sendout negligible, putting total supply near 115.4 Bcf/d. On the demand side, power burn has bounced back above 40 Bcf/d, industrial demand is in the mid-26s Bcf/d, and ResComm load has spiked into the low-50s Bcf/d as a deeper cold shot drags national temps almost 9°F below normal. LNG feedgas is steady in the high-18s Bcf/d, exports to Mexico hover just under 5.6 Bcf/d, and total demand prints near 156 Bcf/d, implying a very stout daily withdrawal signal north of 40 Bcf as we move firmly into early-December heating season.

The EIA reported working gas at 3,923 Bcf for the week ended November 28, a –12 Bcf withdrawal that came in looser than both the five-year average pull of around –43 Bcf and last year’s –26 Bcf for the same week. Regionally, East –4 Bcf, Midwest –15, Mountain –4, Pacific –4, and South Central +16 Bcf (Salt +11, Non-salt +5). At 3,923 Bcf, inventories now sit 191 Bcf (≈5.1%) above the five-year norm of 3,732 Bcf and about 18 Bcf below last year’s 3,941 Bcf level, modestly widening the surplus to average while trimming but not erasing the year-on-year deficit. On the policy side, new FERC Chair Laura Swett used the North American Gas Forum to plant a clear flag for midstream growth, calling pipelines the “backbone of America” and vowing to strip out “unnecessary” procedures in the project review process. She’s ordered a top-to-bottom look at how NEPA reviews ballooned over the past two decades and is openly targeting a “golden building age” for gas pipelines and LNG exports, a stance that, if translated into faster permitting and fewer litigation choke points, would be structurally supportive for long-haul pipe and Gulf Coast liquefaction build-out.

Crude Firms; Var Energi Adds Barents Oil Around Goliat Hub

Front-month WTI trades near $59.52/bbl this morning, modestly above yesterday’s $58.95 close as the complex grinds higher on steady macro sentiment and a light flow of bullish supply headlines. In the Barents Sea, Var Energi has confirmed a new oil discovery at Goliat North, about 5 km from the producing Goliat field. The well encountered hydrocarbons in the Realgrunnen and Kobbe formations with estimated gross recoverable resources up to 5 million boe, part of a four-well “Goliat Ridge” campaign that could ultimately unlock 39–108 million boe, and potentially up to 200 million boe on a full-prospect basis. The plan is to tie back new barrels to the existing Goliat FPSO, creating a fast-track, low-emission, relatively low-cost development that helps reverse decline at a hub currently delivering 24,000 b/d gross of light sweet crude to Atlantic Basin refiners. For the broader market, these are incremental, longer-dated barrels rather than an immediate supply shock, but they reinforce the theme of targeted brownfield growth in advantaged offshore basins, keeping medium-gravity North Sea/Barents blends well supplied.