US natural gas futures were up on Monday, following a bullish storage build last week, alongside the strong recovery in LNG feedgas flows.
The front-month Henry Hub futures contract and the continuous contract both rose by 0.84% to $3.260 per million British thermal units.
On Thursday, the US Energy Information Administration reported a smaller-than-expected net injection of 73 billion cubic feet into storage for the week ended June 12.
While this was in line with the five-year average for this period, it was significantly below the prior week at 108 Bcf, and the same period last year, at 97 Bcf, making it a bullish build for the markets, according to data compiled by Investing.com.
At the same time, LNG export feedgas flows are expected to hit 19.32 Bcf per day on Monday, according to the Bloomberg LNG Feedgas Model, compared to the 30-day moving average of 18.12 Bcf. This marks a strong recovery after several weeks of downtime at major facilities due to spring maintenance.
Weather forecasts remained bullish, with two-thirds of the country expected to see above-normal temperatures from June 29 to July 05, according to the National Weather Service, adding to space-cooling demand and gas-fired power demand.