Natural gas futures continued to come under downward pressure near the front of the curve in early trading Friday, with a larger-than-expected inventory build and tropical cyclone-related demand destruction weighing on prices.

AM markets

The October Nymex contract was down 4.9 cents to $1.993/MMBtu at around 8:45 a.m. ET. Conversely, January was up 4.3 cents to $3.272.

The October contract plummeted 22.5 cents in Thursday’s session in the wake of the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) latest weekly storage report, an 89 Bcf build for the period ending Sept. 11 that surprised to the high side. The plump build added to Lower 48 gas stocks that were already sitting well above historical norms.

Inventories ended the week of Sept. 11 at 3,614 Bcf, 535 Bcf higher than last year and...