The Energy Information Administration (EIA) said storage inventories for the week ending April 15 rose by 53 Bcf, a huge miss to the upside that sent natural gas prices tumbling.

eia storage

The May Nymex gas futures contract was trading a few cents higher day/day at around $6.980/MMBtu in the minutes leading up to the EIA report. As the print crossed trading desks, the prompt month slid to $6.844. As traders continued to digest the latest storage data, the May contract was back at $6.880 by 11 a.m. ET.

Ahead of the EIA report, 11 responses to a Bloomberg survey showed injections as small as 28 Bcf and as high as 42 Bcf. The median build was 40 Bcf. Reuters polled 14 analysts, whose injection estimates ranged from 17 Bcf to 50 Bcf, with a median increase of 37 Bcf.

[Want to know how...