The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Thursday reported an injection of 89 Bcf into natural gas storage for the week ending Sept. 11. The result exceeded the high end of analyst expectations and pointed to substantial near-term imbalance of supply and demand.

EIA Storage Sept 11

Futures plummeted in morning trading. Ahead of the EIA report, the October contract dropped 18.1 cents at $2.086/MMBtu, and it sunk further to around $2.070 when the data was released. By 11 a.m. ET, the prompt month was down 24.7 cents to $2.020.

“It’s a bloodbath today,” said a participant on The Desk’s online energy platform Enelyst.

Prior to the report, a Bloomberg survey found estimates ranging from 68 Bcf to 81 Bcf, with a median of 78 Bcf, while a Reuters poll found a low estimate of 68 Bcf...