NEW YORK: US natural gas futures jumped about 5% to an eight-month high on Thursday on a smaller-than-expected storage build, a drop in output and forecasts for seasonally cooler weather that should boost heating demand in coming weeks.
The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said utilities added 86 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas into storage during the week ended Sept. 29.
That was lower than the 92-bcf build analysts forecast in a Reuters poll and compares with an increase of 126 bcf in the same week last year and a five-year (2018-2022) average increase of 103 bcf.
Last week’s increase boosted stockpiles to 3.445 trillion cubic feet (tcf), or 5.3% above the five-year average of 3.273 tcf for the time of year.
Front-month gas futures for November delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 14.3 cents, or 4.8%, to $3.105 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) at 10:37 a.m. EDT (1437 GMT), putting the contract on track for its highest close since Jan. 24.
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