Natural gas gains on weather forecasts, weekly supply data weighs

Natural gas prices moved higher on Monday as investors digested weather forecasts to determine if hotter temperatures forecast for parts of the heavily populated eastern U.S. will hike demand for the commodity.

Rising stockpile data released last week allowed for choppy trading.

In the New York Mercantile Exchange, natural gas futures for delivery in August traded at USD3.576 per million British thermal units, up 0.29%.

The commodity hit a session low of USD3.532 and a high of USD3.607.
In the U.S. earlier, MDA Weather Services predicted above-average temperatures to settle in over the northeastern U.S. through mid July, which differed from earlier forecasts.

Prices rose on the report though trading was choppy, especially on the heels of bearish supply data.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report on Thursday that natural gas storage in the U.S. in the week ended June 21 rose by 95 billion cubic feet, above expectations for an increase of 88 billion.

Inventories rose by 58 billion cubic feet in the same week a year earlier, while the five-year average change for the week is a rise of 79 billion cubic feet.

Total U.S. natural gas storage stood at 2.533 trillion cubic feet as of last week. Stocks were 522 billion cubic feet less than last year at this time and 31 billion cubic feet below the five-year average of 2.564 trillion cubic feet for this time of year.

The report showed that in the East Region, stocks were 89 billion cubic feet below the five-year average, following net injections of 58 billion cubic feet. 

Stocks in the Producing Region were 13 billion cubic feet above the five-year average of 944 billion cubic feet after a net injection of 24 billion cubic feet.

Elsewhere on the NYMEX, light sweet crude oil futures for delivery in August were up 1.10% and trading at USD97.62 a barrel, while heating oil futures for August delivery were up 0.31% at USD2.8676 per gallon.