The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said natural gas storage inventories increased by a net 72 Bcf for the week ending June 30, but this included a reclassification of 4 Bcf to working gas in the South Central region.

August Nymex natural gas futures, which were trading about 5.0 cents higher day/day at $2.658/MMBtu ahead of the weekly inventory report, quickly erased those gains as the EIA print surpassed estimates ahead of the report. After traders had some time to digest the storage figure, however, the prompt month was back at $2.646, up 3.7 cents on the day.

Prior to the EIA report, published a day later than usual because of the Independence Day holiday, a Reuters poll of 14 analysts produced injection estimates ranging from 56 Bcf to 69 Bcf. The median was a...