As traders contemplated a swelling storage surplus amid mild springtime temperatures, natural gas futures were down sharply ahead of the front month expiration Friday.
With volume thin in its final day of trading, the May Nymex contract was off 9.9 cents to $1.539/MMBtu as of 8:35 a.m. ET. June was trading 5.5 cents lower at $1.931.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Thursday reported a 92 Bcf injection into Lower 48 storage for the week ending April 19, higher than pre-report expectations.
The build also outpaced historical norms and raised the surplus versus the five-year average to 655 Bcf, EIA data show.
When compared to degree days and normal seasonality, the latest EIA print implies balances were 0.3 Bcf/d tighter than the five-year average,...