After selling off throughout the week, natural gas futures attempted to pare their losses in early trading Friday as the wait for more impressive summer heat to arrive continued. The July Nymex contract was up 2.6 cents to $2.184/MMBtu at around 8:50 a.m. ET.

NGI Morning Natural Gas Price & Markets Coverage

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Thursday reported a 110 Bcf injection into U.S. natural gas storage for the week ending May 26. The print landed on the higher side of consensus expectations, and July futures continued to lose ground on Thursday as the market assessed another hefty inventory build.

Total Lower 48 working gas in underground storage stood at 2,446 Bcf as of May 26, 349 Bcf (plus 16.6%) above the five-year average, according to EIA.

Underperforming LNG export demand has been among the factors...