Investing.com - U.S. natural gas futures turned positive in North American trade on Thursday, immediately after data showed that natural gas supplies in storage in the U.S. rose less than expected last week.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report that natural gas storage in the U.S. rose by 57 billion cubic feet in the week ended July 7, while analysts had forecast an increase of 59 billion.
Natural gas for delivery in August on the New York Mercantile Exchange gained 0.8 cents, or 0.27%, to trade at $2.993 per million British thermal units by 10:31AM ET (14:31GMT).
Futures were down 0.1% at around $2.982 prior to the release of the supply data.
Thursday's reading compared with a build of 72 billion cubic feet (bcf) in the preceding week and represented a decline of 289 billion from a year earlier but was 172 bcf above the five-year average.
Total U.S. natural gas storage stood at 2.945 trillion cubic feet, 8.9% lower than levels at this time a year ago and 6.2% above the five-year average for this time of year.
Before the report was released, natural gas had been seeing its second day of profit-taking Thursday as investors locked in gains from a rally earlier in the week as updated weather forecasting models continued to point to increased summer demand in the coming weeks.
Natural gas prices have closely tracked weather forecasts in recent weeks, as traders try to gauge the impact of shifting outlooks on summer heating demand.
Gas use typically hits a seasonal low with spring's mild temperatures, before warmer weather increases demand for gas-fired electricity generation to power air conditioning.
Nearly 50% of all U.S. households use gas for heating.