US natural gas futures were up on Thursday, ahead of the weekly gas storage report, with forecasts pointing towards a bullish build.
Both the July front-month Henry Hub contract and the continuous contract rose 2.04% to $3.158 per million British thermal units.
The US Energy Information Administration is set to unveil its weekly natural gas storage report for the week ended May 22, later in the day on Thursday. Forecasts call for a net injection of 95 Bcf into storage, below the five-year average of 97 Bcf for this period and the prior year's 104 Bcf, according to data from Investing.com.
This comes amid a rebound in LNG feedgas flows, which jumped 8% from the prior week, touching 18.2 Bcf on Tuesday, according to Trading Economics.
On a bearish note, however, power burn demand is set to drop by 2.5 Bcf per day on Thursday, compared to Wednesday, as weather conditions continue to get milder, according to NRG Energy.
According to Gary Cunningham of Tradition Energy, the July natural gas contract is expected to remain "range bound between resistance at $3.14 and support at $3.01 over the next several days," while the December 2026 and February 2027 contracts could touch $4 per MMBtu.