Investing.com - The U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report that natural gas storage in the U.S. decreased by 91 billion cubic feet in the week ended Jan. 4, compared to forecasts for a draw of 76 billion.
Although prices extended gains after in a knee-jerk reaction to the larger-than-expected decline, it quickly returned to levels seen prior to the release.
At 10:37 AM ET (15:37 GMT), natural gas for delivery in February on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 4.5 cents, or about 1.5%, to trade at $3.029 per million British thermal units.
Thursday’s data compared with a decline of 20 billion cubic feet (bcf) in the preceding week and represented a decline of 204 billion from a year earlier and was also 464 bcf below the five-year average.
Total U.S. natural gas storage stood at 2.614 trillion cubic feet, 7.2% lower than levels at this time a year ago and also 15.1% below the five-year average for this time of year.