US natural gas futures settled slightly higher on Thursday, with cold weather forecasts supporting prices despite government data showing mild consumption of gas for heating last week. Front-month gas futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange settled up 0.3 cent, or 0.1 percent, at $2.834 per million British thermal units. The market had risen more than 5 cents at one point, after falling nearly 6 cents earlier.
US utilities drew 111 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas from storage last week, the Energy Information Administration said. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected a 108-bcf draw, which in itself was inadequate to support prices, according to some market bears, given the unusually high gas stockpiles for this time of year.
The 111-bcf withdrawal brought total inventories down to 2.157 trillion cubic feet (tcf). That was about 50 percent above levels in the same week a year ago, when inventories stood at 1.443 tcf. Current stockpiles are also higher than the five-year average of 2.108 tcf. Still, some expect cold weather in the near term to divert attention from last week's mild consumption. MDA Weather Services said its six-to-10-day forecast showed an "unrelenting cold pattern (and) another round of strong cold in the eastern half" of the United States. Reuters data also indicated that more cold weather could be coming.