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US Natural Gas Update: Futures Slide Amid Bearish Weather Forecasts, Storage Estimates

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US natural gas futures were down on Thursday, ahead of the weekly storage print, which forecasts expect to trail the prior year's figures, alongside a shift in near-term weather conditions.

Both the front-month Henry Hub contract and the continuous contract were down 2.35%, to $3.110 per million British thermal units.

Markets are awaiting the US Energy Information Administration's Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report, scheduled for release later in the day. Forecasts call for a net injection of 101 Bcf into storage, compared with 109 Bcf during the same period last year, according to data compiled by Investing.com.

At the same time, weather forecasts that predicted warmer-than-average temperatures across the country in recent weeks now expect at least one-third of the country to be in line with average between June 18 and June 24, according to the National Weather Service.

This is set to weigh on power burn gas demand, as increased air conditioner usage had supported prices in recent weeks.

Gas output ticked up to 107.4 Bcf/d, adding to the bearish sentiments, while strong Canadian imports, at 5.7 Bcf/d, up 7.4% from yesterday, made things worse.

On the bullish front, US LNG Feedgas flows are expected to hit 18.74 Bcf/d on Thursday, according to estimates by the Bloomberg LNG Feedgas Model, significantly ahead of the 30-day moving average of 17.64 Bcf/d.

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