As traders continued to assess balances following the latest round of government inventory data, weighing strong summer heat against weakened export volumes, natural gas futures retreated early Friday.

NGI Morning Natural Gas Price & Markets Coverage

The August Nymex contract was off 10.7 cents to $6.493/MMBtu at around 8:50 a.m. ET.

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Thursday reported a net 58 Bcf injection into U.S. storage during the week ended July 8. That left total Lower 48 inventories at 2,369 Bcf, 319 Bcf (minus 11.9%) below the five-year average.

“On a weather-adjusted basis, we estimate the market was roughly 1 Bcf/d oversupplied for the week versus 1 Bcf/d undersupplied the week prior,” analysts at Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. (TPH) said of the latest EIA print. This suggests that “degree days...