May Nymex natural gas futures settled 4.5 cents higher Thursday, rallying late as traders considered the implications of a larger-than-anticipated storage withdrawal.

At A Glance:

  • May futures up 4.5 cents
  • Storage down 36 Bcf
  • Cash trades for Monday

The front-month contract closed the session at $1.763/MMBtu, slipping from a $1.786 intraday high and off the $1.686 low that came shortly after the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) latest storage print.

NGI’s Spot Gas National Avg. at $1.315 was 8.0 cents higher day/day. Trading was revised for Monday delivery to accommodate the market’s closure for the Good Friday holiday.

EIA reported a 36 Bcf withdrawal from natural gas inventories for the week ended March 22. The drawdown was above the 27 Bcf five-year...