Investing.com – U.S. natural gas futures initially pared losses in North American trade on Thursday, after data showed that natural gas supplies in storage in the U.S. rose slightly less than expected last week.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report that in the U.S. rose by 64 billion cubic feet in the week ended October 20, while analysts had forecast an increase of 65 billion.
After the release, for delivery in November on the New York Mercantile Exchange lost 2.2 cents, or about 0.75%, to trade at $2.897 per million British thermal units by 10:33AM ET (14:33GMT).
Futures had been declining by 2.9 cents, or 0.99%, at $2.890 prior to the release of the supply data.
That compared with a build of 51 billion cubic feet (bcf) in the preceding week and represented a decline of 189 billion from a year earlier and was 46 bcf below the five-year average.
Total U.S. natural gas storage stood at 3.710 trillion cubic feet, 4.8% lower than levels at this time a year ago and 1.2% below the five-year average for this time of year.
Analysts estimated the amount of gas in storage would end the April-October injection season at 3.8 tcf due primarily to higher liquefied natural gas shipments abroad. That would fall short of the year-earlier record of 4.0 tcf and the five-year average of 3.9 tcf.
Gas futures often reach a seasonal low in October, when mild weather weakens demand, before recovering in the winter, when heating-fuel use peaks.
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Source: Investing.com
