Natural gas traders got confirmation that the recent polar vortex drained a huge amount of the heating fuel last week. Closely-watched data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed that utilities pulled a record 287 billion cubic feet of gas supplies from storage tanks in the week ended Jan. 10. The sharp decline, which beat the previous record withdrawal of 285 bcf in December, came as many Americans turned up their thermostats to burn a higher-than-normal amount of the fuel in furnaces to heat their homes. While the amount of gas withdrawn was less than the 299 bcf that analysts had expected, traders have moved on to focus on weather forecasts for another cold snap in late January. “The overall outlook remains bullish, with plenty of heating demand forecast for the balance of the month, and so we would expect the downside price reaction to prove limited,” said Tim […]