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US Natural Gas Update: Futures Rise Over 2% on Bullish Storage Report, LNG Feedgas Recovery

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US natural gas futures were up on Friday following bullish weekly storage reports, alongside a rebound in LNG export feedgas flows.

The front-month Henry Hub contract and the continuous contract both rose 2.07% to $3.353 per million British thermal units. The benchmark was set to end the week up by 11.11%, according to TradingEconomics.

The US Energy Information Administration reported a net injection of 92 billion cubic feet of natural gas into storage for the week ending May 22, compared to the net injection of 101 Bcf the prior week. This brought total gas inventories to 2,483 Bcf, 144 Bcf, or 6%, above the five-year average for this period, and 21 Bcf, or 1%, above the prior year.

This week's storage build fell short of forecasts of 96 Bcf and last year's 104 Bcf during the same week, according to data compiled by Investing.com, making it a bullish injection.

Besides this, LNG export feedgas flows rebounded sharply this week, with the Bloomberg LNG Feedgas Model expecting 18.46 Bcf in flows for Friday, compared to the 30-day moving average of 17.94 Bcf.

This also marked a sharp recovery from last week, when flows fell to a 16-week low of 15.1 Bcf on Tuesday as major export facilities underwent seasonal maintenance.

Even US gas output across the Lower 48 states eased to 109.4 Bcf per day in May, compared to 109.8 Bcf per day in April, adding to the bullish momentum, according to TradingEconomics.

As much as two-thirds of the country is still expected to experience above-normal temperatures from early to mid June, keeping air conditioning power burn elevated, according to the National Weather Service.

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