Riding positive momentum from the previous session, natural gas futures continued to advance early Thursday as traders shrugged off a potential increase in the Lower 48 storage surplus from the latest government inventory data.

Heading into its first session as the front month, the November Nymex contract was up 3.7 cents to $2.936/MMBtu as of 8:42 a.m. ET.

The October contract posted a strong finish Wednesday, rallying 10.8 cents in its final day of trading. EBW Analytics Group analyst Eli Rubin attributed the bullishness on display Wednesday partly to “a tremendous surge in oil prices lifting macro interest in energy commodities.”

Rubin also highlighted forecasting from DTN for the storage week ending Oct. 19 that hinted at a possible “abrupt shift cooler” for the...