The possibility of a warmer than expected summer, along with a spike in crude oil prices and a freak heat wave in Texas that led to a surge in demand for natural gas all helped boost natural gas futures prices to well above $8 this week. Prices look to stay there in the near term, despite the record inventories.

We are entering spring with near-record levels of inventory. A recent cold spell notwithstanding, few people now care about surprises in this release, seeing as how total inventories are nearly 70% above average.

Inventories for this time of the year remain well above average, and in the upper end of the average range for this time of the year.

Inventories for this time of the year remain astoundingly above average.