Natural gas futures probed both sides of even in early trading Thursday as traders braced for the latest government inventory data, expected to reveal a near-average springtime injection. Following a 9.3-cent sell-off in the previous session, the May Nymex contract was down 0.9 cents to $2.084/MMBtu at around 8:35 a.m. ET.

Expectations appear to be centering around a near-average build in the mid- to upper-20s Bcf for the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) 10:30 a.m. ET storage report, which covers changes to U.S. inventories during the week ending April 7.

Surveys from Bloomberg and Reuters showed injection estimates ranging from 20 Bcf to 35 Bcf. Bloomberg’s survey of nine analysts produced a median build of 26 Bcf, while the Reuters poll produced a median build of...