With the market contemplating signs of continued looseness offered up in the latest government inventory data, natural gas futures eased lower in early trading Friday.

NGI Morning Natural Gas Price & Markets Coverage

The May Nymex contract was off 0.8 cents to $2.241/MMBtu at around 8:40 a.m. ET.

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Thursday reported a 75 Bcf injection into U.S. natural gas storage facilities for the week ending April 14, coming in on the high side of pre-report expectations and outpacing the five-year average 41 Bcf injection.

Total Lower 48 working gas in underground storage stood at 1,930 Bcf as of April 14, at a 329 Bcf (20.5%) surplus to the prior five-year average, EIA data show.

“On a weather-adjusted basis, we estimate the market was roughly 4 Bcf/d oversupplied, in line with the two...