That was in line with the 106-bcf build analysts forecast in a Reuters poll and compares with an increase of 96 bcf during the same week last year and a five-year (2015-19) average build of 74 bcf for the period.
The increase last week boosted stockpiles to 2.319 trillion cubic feet (tcf), 20.5% above the five-year average of 1.924 tcf for this time of year. Front-month gas futures for June delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 0.6 cent, or 0.3%, to $1.950 per million British thermal units at 10:49 a.m. EDT (1449 GMT).
This has been a volatile week for US gas. Prices jumped to a 16-week high on Tuesday after a big pipe shut and on slowing output, but fell almost 9% on Wednesday, the biggest percentage decline in over a year, after the market failed to break above the 200-day moving average and on forecasts government lockdowns to stop the coronavirus spread will cut demand and exports.
That price increase on Tuesday briefly made the US front-month the most expensive of the world's major benchmarks for the first time ever, ahead of the Title Transfer Facility (TTF) in the Netherlands and the Japan/Korea Marker (JKM), both of which are trading near record lows.