Natural gas futures on Wednesday built on the gains of a day earlier as a favorable shift in the weather-demand outlook offset expectations for a triple-digit storage injection with the federal government’s pending inventory report Thursday. 

At A Glance:

  • Production falls to 97 Bcf/d
  • Forecasts for mixed demand
  • NGI models draw of 41 Bcf

The June Nymex contract gained 7.1 cents day/day and rolled off the board after settling at $2.984/MMBtu on Wednesday. It had gained 2.7 cents on Tuesday.

The June contract hovered near the $3.00 level over much of its span at the front of the curve, but it fell short of breaking through and staying above that threshold.

July, which takes over as the prompt month Thursday, gained 5.3 cents to $3.027.

NGI’s Spot Gas National Avg. rose...