Investing.com - Natural gas futures posted strong gains through they remained range bound on Tuesday on hopes harsh winter weather in the U.S. last week took its toll on the country's inventories.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, natural gas futures for delivery in April traded at $4.607 per million British thermal units during U.S. trading, up 2.55%. The commodity hit session high of $4.647 and a low of $4.493.
The April contract settled down 2.54% on Monday to end at $4.492 per million British thermal units.
Natural gas futures were likely to find support at $4.463 per million British thermal units, Monday's low, and resistance at $4.736, Monday's high.
Wintry weather dumping snow and lowering mercury readings last week hopefully hiked demand for natural gas as households cranked up their heating, which should reflect in Thursday's supply report.
Early withdrawal estimates for this Thursday’s storage data ranged from 140 billion cubic feet to 174 billion cubic feet, which is mostly above the year-ago draw of 149 billion cubic feet and well above the five-year average draw of 105 billion.
Total U.S. natural gas storage stood at 1.348 trillion cubic feet as of last week, the lowest for this time of year since 2004, following a withdrawal of 95 billion cubic feet.
Natural gas prices rallied to a more than five-year high of $6.493 per million British thermal units on February 20 as unusually cold winter temperatures in the U.S. led households to burn a higher than normal amount of the fuel in furnaces to heat their homes.
The heating season from November through March is the peak demand period for U.S. gas consumption. Approximately 52% of U.S. households use natural gas for heating, according to the Energy Department.
Elsewhere on the NYMEX, light sweet crude oil futures for delivery in April were down 1.77% and trading at $103.06 a barrel, while heating oil for April delivery were down 1.58% and trading at $3.0318 per gallon.