Ahead of the release of updated government inventory data, natural gas futures were down several cents in early trading Thursday as concerns over limited storage capacity into the end of the injection season appeared to overshadow any uplift from the recent strengthening in export demand. The October Nymex contract was down 6.0 cents to $2.346/MMBtu at around 8:40 a.m. ET.

AM markets

NGI’s U.S. LNG Export Tracker for Wednesday showed feed gas flows to domestic liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals surging to 6.35 million Dth/d, well above volumes in the 3-4 million Dth/d range recorded last week. 

Analysts were expecting the recent LNG demand gains to continue, with Bespoke Weather Services gauging feed gas flows for Thursday at 6.8 Bcf/d.

“Cash prices were much weaker yesterday...