The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported Thursday morning that U.S. natural gas stocks increased by 63 billion cubic feet for the week ending April 10. Analysts expected a storage injection (increase) of 52 billion cubic feet. The five-year average for the week is a 35 billion cubic foot injection, and last year’s increase totaled 11 billion cubic feet.

Natural gas futures for May delivery traded down about flat in advance of the EIA’s report, at around $2.60 per million BTUs, and slipped to around $2.55 (down nearly 0.2% for the day) following release of the report. At $2.55, natural gas futures have risen about $0.01 per million BTUs over the past five trading days. The 52-week low for natural gas futures is $2.48. One year ago the price for a million BTUs was around $4.20.

Warmer weather is expected in the northern tier of states, while the South will remain comfortable with temperatures in the 70s and 80s. A cold front heading into the West and Midwest will bring cooler temperatures later this week and into next. Demand for heating is expected to be low for the rest of this week, while demand for cooling is expected to be light.

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The peak demand season for natural gas runs from November through March. Last week marks the first inventory build since last October. As storage injections begin, producers and traders will be keeping an eye on storage capacity. Continuing high levels of production could have an impact on storage costs and, ultimately, city gate prices.

Stockpiles are about 81.7% above their levels of a year ago and about 8.6% below the five-year average.

The EIA reported that U.S. working stocks of natural gas totaled about 1.54 trillion cubic feet, around 145 billion cubic feet below the five-year average of 1.68 trillion cubic feet and 692 billion cubic feet above last year’s total for the same period. Working gas in storage totaled 847 billion cubic feet for the same period a year ago.

Here is how stocks of the largest U.S. natural gas producers reacted to this latest report:

Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM), the country’s largest producer of natural gas, traded down about 0.7%, at $87.48 in a 52-week range of $82.68 to $104.76.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK) traded down about 3.3%, at $15.50 in a 52-week range of $13.38 to $29.92.

EOG Resources Inc. (NYSE: EOG) traded down about 0.4% to $97.57. The 52-week range is $81.07 to $118.89.

In addition, the United States Natural Gas ETF (NYSEMKT: UNG) traded down about 1.4%, at $12.85 in a 52-week range of $12.49 to $26.88.

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