As traders eyed the upcoming release of the latest weekly government inventory data, and as overnight forecasts advertised cooler trends for later this month, natural gas futures slid a few cents lower in early trading Thursday. The August Nymex contract was down 3.1 cents to $3.629/MMBtu at around 8:45 a.m. ET.

NGI Morning Natural Gas Price & Markets Coverage

Major surveys ahead of this week’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) storage report, scheduled for 10:30 a.m. ET, point to a build in the upper 40s Bcf, in line with historical norms.

A Bloomberg survey as of Wednesday showed injection estimates ranging from 39 Bcf to 53 Bcf and a median of 49 Bcf. Reuters’ poll of analysts found estimates ranging from a build of 38 Bcf to 56 bcf, with a median injection of 48 Bcf. NGI’s model estimated an injection of 39 Bcf...