FX.co ★ US Natural Gas Stocks Fall More than Expected

In the week ending January 16, 2026, U.S. energy companies extracted 120 billion cubic feet of natural gas from storage, slightly surpassing projections. This brought stockpiles down to 3.065 trillion cubic feet, which is approximately 4.8% higher than the levels recorded a year prior, and about 6.1% above the five-year average for this timeframe. The current withdrawal is significantly lower than the 228 billion cubic feet draw from the equivalent week last year and the five-year average draw of 191 billion cubic feet. This reduction can largely be attributed to warmer-than-usual weather, which diminished heating demand. In contrast, during the previous week ending January 9, utilities removed 71 billion cubic feet from storage. Now, attention is turning to the upcoming storage report, which is anticipated to show a significant uptick in withdrawals. This expectation stems from the impending cold weather this weekend, predicted to cause a substantial rise in heating demand and potentially result in one of the largest weekly draws on record.