A less-than-impressive early season heating demand outlook pressured natural gas futures lower ahead of the latest government inventory report early Thursday. 

Extending an 8.1-cent slide from the previous session, the December Nymex contract was off 7.8 cents to $3.416/MMBtu at around 8:37 a.m. ET.

Pre-report surveys show market expectations centered around a larger-than-average injection in the low-80s Bcf for the latest U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) storage report, scheduled for 10:30 a.m. ET.

NGI modeled an injection of 82 Bcf. That compares with a five-year average of 57 Bcf and a 99 Bcf year-earlier build.

Injection estimates submitted to Reuters for the Oct. 27 week ranged from 76 Bcf to 88 Bcf and landed at a median of 81 Bcf. Bloomberg’s survey...