Natural gas futures held onto their recent gains early Thursday as traders awaited the latest government inventory data, set against the backdrop of a more bullish outlook for export demand later this year.

NGI Morning Natural Gas Price & Markets Coverage

After surging 56.0 cents higher in Wednesday’s session, the September Nymex contract was off 3.1 cents to $8.235/MMBtu as of around 8:50 a.m. ET.

Estimates ahead of the latest Energy Information Administration (EIA) storage report, scheduled for 10:30 a.m. ET, have been centering around an injection in the mid- to upper-20s Bcf for the week ended July 29.

The year-earlier injection is 16 Bcf, while the five-year average for the week is a build of 35 Bcf, according to EIA data.

A Bloomberg survey of eight analysts produced a range of injection estimates from 19 Bcf to...