Working natural gas storage inventories posted a rare summer net withdrawal of 6 billion cubic feet (Bcf) for the week ending July 29, 2016, according to EIA’s Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report . Record-high consumption of natural gas for electric power generation drove this withdrawal. Although withdrawals in the summer are not unprecedented, and happen regularly in the South Central storage region , the last time a net withdrawal in July occurred on a national basis was in summer 2006. This net withdrawal brings total inventories to 3,288 Bcf, or about 16% higher than the previous five-year average (2011–15). During the current injection season, net injections had already been much lower than the previous five-year average for almost every week. This trend reflects an unusually high inventory level at the start of the injection season, high power burn , and slightly lower natural gas production, which has recently fallen […]