Natural gas working storage levels are lower than in recent years.
Low injection rates in the first 3 months of the refill season, which begins in March, were low and resulted in a stock level 8 percent below the 5-year average. However, net injections in the first 2 weeks of July were 24 percent above average, as moderate weather slowed demand. Natural gas inventories are expected to remain at the bottom of the normal range for the remainder of the year, unless we have unusually moderate weather through the rest of the build cycle. Stock growth has been slow because adjustments in domestic production seem to be lagging behind a recent rise in demand. Expanding gas consumption potential may have been obscured in recent years by warm weather, record electricity output from hydro and nuclear facilities, and low petroleum prices.