Natural gas futures hovered close to even early Thursday as market participants, already on edge over storage adequacy concerns ahead of winter, awaited the latest government inventory report. A wider trading range after hours foretold volatility to come, according to analysts.

NGI Morning Natural Gas Price & Markets Coverage

The October Nymex contract was up 1.2 cents to $4.627/MMBtu as of around 8:45 a.m. ET.

Ahead of the latest Energy Information Administration (EIA) storage report, scheduled for 10:30 a.m. ET, surveys have been pointing to a below-average build in the mid 20s Bcf.

A Bloomberg survey found injection estimates ranging from 22 Bcf to 29 Bcf, with a median of 25 Bcf. A Reuters poll produced the same median figure and found estimates spanning from a build of 19 Bcf to an increase of 34 Bcf. A Wall Street...