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US Natural Gas Update: Futures Slip Amid Bearish Storage Build, Despite Bullish Weather Forecast

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US natural gas futures were down on Friday after a larger-than-expected inventory build put bearish pressure on the market.

Both the Henry Hub front-month and continuous contracts slipped by 1.72%, to $2.966 per million British thermal units, while the benchmark was set to end the week down by 0.15%, according to TradingEconomics.

This comes amid the US Energy Information Administration's weekly natural gas inventory report, which showed a net injection of 101 billion cubic feet of gas into storage, up from 85 Bcf the prior week and significantly ahead of forecasts of 96 Bcf, according to data compiled by Investing.com.

This brought total working gas in storage to 2,391 Bcf, which was 33 Bcf, or 1%, above last year's figure for this period, and 149 Bcf, or 7%, above the five-year average for this period.

US dry gas production edged higher to 107.4 Bcf per day, up 0.3 Bcf/d from Wednesday, while LNG export feedgas rebounded from a 16-week low earlier this week, at 17.3 Bcf/d, according to NRG Energy.

Weather forecasts remained bullish, with most parts of the country expected to see above-normal temperatures through late May and early June, leading to expectations of higher cooling gas demand, according to data from the National Weather Service.

Additionally, reports that three US LNG cargoes are scheduled to arrive in China in June, marking the first such deliveries since February 2025, lent some support to prices, according to Trading Economics.

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