Natural gas futures for July delivery retained a gain of 2.3 percent at around $2.96 per million BTUs after the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported on Thursday that natural gas stocks increased by 92 billion cubic feet for the week ending June 1.
Analysts were expecting a storage injection of about 92 billion cubic feet. The five-year average for the week is an injection of 104 billion cubic feet, and last year’s storage increase for the week totaled 103 billion cubic feet. Natural gas inventories rose by 96 billion cubic feet in the week ending May 25.
Total U.S. stockpiles rose week over week to 30.5 percent below last year’s level and are now 22 percent below the five-year average.
The EIA reported that U.S. working stocks of natural gas totaled about 1.817 trillion cubic feet at the end of last week, around 512 billion cubic feet below the five-year average of 2.329 trillion cubic feet and 799 billion cubic feet below last year’s total for the same period. Working gas in storage totaled 2.616 trillion cubic feet for the same period a year ago.
In reaction to the report, ExxonMobil Corp., the largest producer of natural gas in the US, traded up about 0.8 percent at $82.75 in a 52-week range of $72.16 to $89.30; Chesapeake Energy Corp. traded up about 5.9 percent to $4.63, in a 52-week range of $2.53 to $5.29; EOG Resources Inc. traded up about 2.2 percent to $118.65. The 52-week range is $81.99 to $128.03.
Furthermore, the United States Natural Gas ETF traded up about 1.5 percent, at $23.81 in a 52-week range of $20.40 to $27.92.
