Bolstered by increased demand expectations from one of the major weather models overnight, natural gas futures were trading higher early Thursday as the market awaited the latest government storage report. 

NGI Morning Natural Gas Price & Markets Coverage

The May Nymex contract was up 11.5 cents to $6.144/MMBtu at around 8:45 a.m. ET.

Expectations for this morning’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) storage report, scheduled for 10:30 a.m. ET, point to a draw in the upper 20s Bcf for the week ended April 1. 

A Bloomberg survey of seven analysts showed withdrawal estimates from 17 Bcf to 36 Bcf, with a median draw of 27 Bcf. Reuters polled 15 analysts, whose estimates ranged from withdrawals of 3 Bcf to 44 Bcf, with a median decline of 26 Bcf. A tighter range of projections in a Wall Street Journal poll averaged at a...