With traders seemingly not banking on a follow-up to last week’s bullish storage surprise, natural gas futures retreated ahead of the latest round of government inventory data Thursday. 

The June Nymex contract was down 4.5 cents to $2.353/MMBtu at around 8:30 a.m. ET. July was off 5.0 cents to $2.516.

Surveys suggest market participants expect the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) 10:30 a.m. ET natural gas storage report to reveal a net injection approaching the low triple digits. Estimates submitted to Reuters spanned injections of 91 Bcf to 109 Bcf, with a median increase of 100 Bcf. Bloomberg’s poll found a narrower range and a median of 101 Bcf.

NGI modeled a 102 Bcf increase. The year-earlier build was 88 Bcf, while the five-year average injection is 96...