By Barani Krishnan
Investing.com -- Utilities pulled 47 billion cubic of natural gas from storage for heating and electricity generation last week, lower than the 54 bcf anticipated by industry analysts, a government report showed Thursday.
The weaker-than-forecast withdrawal left 1.853 trillion cubic feet, or tcf, of gas in U.S. inventory, the Energy Information Administration, or EIA, said in its weekly report of gas storage balances.
The current U.S. gas inventory was 31% higher from the balance at the same time a year ago and 21% up versus the five-year average for storage, the EIA said.
Benchmark natural gas futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange’s Henry Hub were down 6.4 cents, or almost 3%, by 10:40 ET (14:40 GMT), responding to the smaller-than-anticipated demand for the fuel last week.