Natural gas was steady early on Friday as temperatures remain mild and storage data released a day earlier contained no surprises
Gas for May delivery was last seen unchanged at US$1.76 per million British thermal units.
The Energy Information Administration on Thursday said US natural gas inventories last week rose by 50-billion cubic feet last week, near expectations, pushing storage to 2.33-trillion cubic feet, 36.4% above the five-year average.
"Last week's print came in as a 50bcf build, looser than TPH (47bcf) but tighter than the Street and the 5-yr average (51bcf/61bcf) ... Production for the week averaged just under ~100bcfpd with volumes in the Haynesville at 14.3bcfpd - after averaging 15.1bcfpd through March, we have seen volumes come down about ~880mmcfd MTD," Tudor, Pickering, Holt analyst Matt Portillo noted.
Long-term forecasts from the National Weather Service see most states with seasonal or better temperatures over the next six to 14 days, keeping demand low until the arrival of summer heat.