Natural gas futures held steady at the front of the curve in early trading Friday as mild shoulder season weather and a somewhat looser-than-expected close to withdrawal season kept the pressure on prices.

NGI Morning Natural Gas Price & Markets Coverage

At around 8:45 a.m. ET, the May Nymex contract was close to unchanged at $1.773/MMBtu.

The front month sold off 6.7 cents in Thursday’s session after the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported a 37 Bcf withdrawal from Lower 48 storage for the week ending March 29. The result came in tighter than the five-year average but was slightly lighter than the midpoint of pre-report expectations.

Total Lower 48 working gas in underground storage stood at 2,259 Bcf as of March 29, 633 Bcf higher than the five-year average. The year-on-five-year surplus reached as high...