The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Thursday reported an injection of 79 Bcf of natural gas into storage for the week ended Oct. 27. The result landed near expectations and sent Nymex natural gas futures higher to narrow earlier declines.

Ahead of the 10:30 a.m. ET report, December Nymex futures were trading lower by 7 cents at around $3.425/MMBtu. After the EIA print hit the screen, the contract traded across a 5-cent range. By 11 a.m. ET, the November Nymex contract was trading at $3.460, 3.4 cents below the prior day’s close.

Before the storage report was issued, injection estimates submitted to Reuters for the week ranged from 76 Bcf to 88 Bcf and landed at a median of 81 Bcf. Bloomberg’s survey spanned builds of 76 Bcf to 84 Bcf with a median expectation...