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US Natural Gas Update: Futures Ease Ahead of Storage Data

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US natural gas futures extended losses in after-hours trade on Wednesday after touching a one-week high early in the session, as traders positioned ahead of a government storage report expected to show a larger-than-normal inventory build that would reinforce expectations of ample domestic supplies.

The front-month Henry Hub contract and the continuous contract both fell 1.44% to $3.218 per million British thermal units.

Market participants expect the US Energy Information Administration on Thursday to report a bearish storage build for the week ended July 3. The five-year average injection for the period is 51 billion cubic feet, while inventories rose 53 Bcf during the same week a year earlier.

Analysts' forecasts point to another above-average build. Barchart expects inventories to increase by 61 Bcf, while Gelber & Associates estimates a 50-Bcf increase. NRG forecasts a 57-Bcf injection this week, followed by a 43-Bcf build next week.

US prices had climbed earlier in the session, supported by gains in European gas markets, where benchmark prices rose by more than 5% after the US military attacked Iranian targets and US President Donald Trump said the ceasefire with Iran had ended, raising renewed concerns about energy shipments through the Persian Gulf.

Back in the US, lower-48 dry gas production averaged 111.6 Bcf/d on Wednesday, up 1.4 Bcf/d from the previous day and 4.2% higher than a year earlier, according to BNEF data cited by Barchart.

BNEF said demand across the lower 48 states averaged 76.2 Bcf/d, up 0.9 Bcf/d from Tuesday but down 4.9% from a year earlier. Celsius Energy estimated power-sector gas consumption, or power burn, at 42.3 Bcf/d on July 6, unchanged from the same day last year. For the week ended July 6, power burn averaged 40.8 Bcf/d, down 2.6% from the corresponding period in 2025.

Estimated net gas flows to US LNG export terminals rose to 18.4 Bcf/d, up 0.3 Bcf/d from the previous day, although they remained 3.7% below the prior week's level.

Europe, the largest buyer of US LNG, is replenishing inventories ahead of winter, but storage remains only about 50% full, well below the seasonal average of roughly 65%, according to the Swiss Federal Office of Energy. Renewed Middle East violence raised concerns that Asian buyers would compete more aggressively for any available spot US LNG cargoes.

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