Natural gas futures gained back a couple pennies in early trading Thursday as the market prepared to assess the latest government inventory data, expected to show a larger-than-average springtime injection.

Coming off a 14.4-cent swoon in the previous session, the May Nymex contract was up 2.7 cents to $2.249/MMBtu at around 8:45 a.m. ET.

Predictions ahead of the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) 10:30 a.m. ET storage report show expectations for a larger-than-average injection in the upper 60s to low 70s Bcf for the week ending April 14.

A Bloomberg survey of 10 analysts had a range of estimates from 64 Bcf to 77 Bcf, with a median of 70 Bcf. Reuters polled 14 analysts, whose estimates ranged from injections of 64 Bcf to 80 Bcf, with a median increase of 68 Bcf....