Benchmark · weekly · Billion Cubic Feet

Natural-gas storage injection pace

Is the weekly build into natural-gas storage running ahead of or behind its seasonal norm?

The injection pace is the weekly change in working gas storage. The build during injection season or the draw during winter. Measured against what the same week normally changes. A build running above the five-year average change fills the storage buffer faster than normal; a draw running deeper drains it faster. It is the pace of the storage story, not the level.
Readingsweekly
Weekly storage change
33.00Billion Cubic Feet
Five-year average change
28.87Billion Cubic Feet
Spread
4.13Billion Cubic Feet
13-week change
+21.87 Billion Cubic Feet
from -17.73
Percentile of spread
53rd
of 709 readings · since 2013-01-04
Natural-gas storage injection pace
Data through 31 July 2026
-400.0-300.0-200.0-100.00.00100.0200.08 Jan 20103 May 201326 Aug 201613 Dec 20197 Apr 202331 Jul 2026
Weekly storage change
Five-year average change
Natural-gas storage injection pace: summary statistics (Max range)
SeriesFirstLatestMinMax
Weekly storage change-267.0033.00-359.00132.00
Five-year average change-178.6728.87-209.40101.13
Source
EIA
Frequency
weekly
Data through
31 July 2026
Refreshed
11 Aug 2026
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How this is calculated

Formula
weeklyChange = storage_t − storage_{t−1}; pace gap = weeklyChange − sameWeekFiveYearAverageChange

Weekly change in Lower-48 working gas in underground storage (EIA series NW2_EPG0_SWO_R48_BCF): this week's working gas minus last week's.The comparator is the same-week five-year average change, computed from the same seasonal engine (same ISO week, ±1 week, five complete years before each date). The spread between the two is the injection-pace surprise.

As of 31 July 2026, the latest readings are Weekly storage change at 33.00 Billion Cubic Feet and Five-year average change at 28.87 Billion Cubic Feet. The Weekly storage change line is up 26.00 Billion Cubic Feet over the past year and below its long-run median of 35.00 Billion Cubic Feet.

How to read it

What a fast or slow pace means

During the injection season, a weekly build above the five-year average change means the market is refilling the winter buffer faster than normal. Bearish for Henry Hub, because less of the coming winter's demand will have to compete for a fixed pool of gas. During the withdrawal season, a draw above the norm means winter is eating storage faster than history. Bullish. The pace leads the level: a season that starts slow can be reframed weeks before the level confirms it.

Why the same-week average change as the comparator

Storage changes are strongly seasonal. Early-season injections are large, late-season injections small, and winter draws vary with weather. Comparing a weekly change to the same week's average change strips that calendar shape out, so an 'above-normal build' in October and an 'above-normal draw' in January mean the same thing relative to their seasons.

How the pace surprise relates to the level

The pace is the first difference of the storage level: a persistent above-normal pace is what moves the level from one side of the five-year band to the other. The market prices the weekly pace surprise directly. A build above or below consensus moves front-month gas within minutes of Thursday's report. So this page is the same number the market trades, against the same five-year convention.

Limitations

The five-year average change is exactly that. An average. So a single winter's weather can sit far from it without anything being 'wrong'. Weekly storage changes are revised. The pace says nothing about demand composition: a big build from weak industrial demand and a big build from high production read identically here. Treat the chart as context for the storage balance, not investment advice.

How this benchmark is used

The Thursday storage-surprise trade

The EIA storage report's headline is the weekly change versus market expectations, and the market prices the surprise immediately. This page reproduces the same comparison with a strict five-year baseline, so the pace gap here is the same quantity the consensus estimate is formed against.

Frequently asked questions

6 answers
What is the current natural-gas storage injection pace?

As of 31 July 2026, the latest readings are Weekly storage change at 33.00 Billion Cubic Feet and Five-year average change at 28.87 Billion Cubic Feet. The Weekly storage change line is up 26.00 Billion Cubic Feet over the past year and below its long-run median of 35.00 Billion Cubic Feet.

How often is this benchmark updated?

This benchmark is built on weekly data. The page is refreshed when the source publishes new observations; the freshness block below the chart shows the exact data-through date and when PIER20 last fetched the file.

What data sources does this chart use?

The chart is built from Weekly storage change and Five-year average change, sourced from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

What does a negative pace gap mean?

A negative gap means the weekly change came in below the five-year average change: a smaller-than-normal build in injection season, or a deeper-than-normal draw in winter (because winter changes are already negative, and an even more negative change sits below the average). The percentile cell ranks the latest gap against its own history.

How is this different from the storage level page?

The storage level page answers 'how much gas is in the ground versus the seasonal range'. This page answers 'how fast is that number moving relative to its seasonal norm'. The level is the buffer; the pace is the flow filling or draining it. And the pace moves first.

When is the data updated?

Weekly, with the EIA storage report (Thursday 10:30 a.m. ET, data through the prior Friday). The fetch retries the next day if a scheduled release is late.

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