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.
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...