gas update

The U.S. Energy Information Administration today reported the U.S. natural gas stocks increased by 72 billion cubic feet last week, within the range for an expected build of between 51 and 75 billion cubic feet anticipated by analysts. Natural gas futures prices were down about 1.8% in advance of the EIA’s report, at around $3.59 per million BTUs, and rose to around $3.62 immediately following the EIA report.

The EIA reported that U.S. working stocks of natural gas totaled nearly 2.61 trillion cubic feet, about 30 billion cubic feet lower than the five-year average of 2.64 trillion cubic feet. Working gas in storage totaled 3.1 trillion cubic feet for the same period a year ago.