Investing.com - U.S. natural gas futures reversed gains on Thursday morning, turning lower after data showed that natural gas supplies in storage in the U.S. fell broadly in line with market expectations.
U.S. natural gas for April delivery shed 1.8 cents, or around 0.6% to $2.992 per million British thermal units by 10:45AM ET (14:45GMT). Futures were at around $3.046 prior to the release of the supply data.
It settled lower for the first time in four sessions on Wednesday, falling 8.2 cents, or about 2.7%, as traders monitored shifting early-spring weather forecasts.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report that natural gas storage in the U.S. declined by 150 billion cubic feet in the week ended March 17, matching forecasts.
That compared with a withdrawal of 53 billion cubic feet in the preceding week, a build of 15 billion a year earlier and a five-year average drop of 21 billion cubic feet.
Total natural gas in storage currently stands at 2.092 trillion cubic feet, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, 16% lower than levels at this time a year ago but 12.7% above the five-year average for this time of year.
Meanwhile, updated weather forecasting models showed that warm to mild conditions will dominate most of the U.S. this weekend, even as a spring-like weather system with heavy showers and thunderstorms impacts the central U.S.
Next week will be mostly mild to warm across the country with limited demand for heating or cooling besides the far northern U.S., according to forecasters at NatGasWeather.com.
Prices of the heating fuel are down around 20% so far this year as forecasts for warm winter weather weighed on heating demand expectations.
Based on data from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, this year’s extremely warm winter has pushed heating demand for natural gas to nearly 20% below average.
About half of U.S. homes use natural gas for heating.
Without significant demand for natural gas, inventories could stay near record levels and may even continue to pull prices even lower.