Natural gas futures advanced most of Friday, spurred higher by supply interruptions and the potential for a sustained production pullback. But the prompt month gave up gains late and finished flat as traders paused to digest the latest rig count data.   

At A Glance:

  • Storage miss motivates bulls
  • Production remains wildcard
  • Weather demand on hiatus

The June Nymex gas futures contract settled at $2.585/MMBtu, down seven tenths of a cent day/day. July shed eight tenths of a cent to $2.707. The June contract nevertheless closed the week up 14% from the prior week’s finish.

NGI’s Spot Gas National Avg. gained 7.0 cents on Friday to $2.040.

A light storage print on Thursday – at least relative to market expectations – galvanized bulls. The U.S. Energy Information...