The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported Thursday morning that U.S. natural gas stocks increased by 90 billion cubic feet for the week ending April 17. Analysts expected a storage injection (increase) of 86 to 90 billion cubic feet. The five-year average for the week is a 50 billion cubic foot injection.

Natural gas futures for May delivery traded down in advance of the EIA’s report, at around $2.55 per million BTUs, and slipped to $2.52 (down about 3% for the day) following release of the report. Last Thursday, natural gas closed at $2.68 per million BTUs and natural gas futures have dropped by about $0.15 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.

Cooler weather moved into the northern tier of states earlier this week, pushing demand for heating up into the moderate range. Demand for cooling is not expected to be much of a factor as temperatures over much of the southern half of the country are expected to be pleasant through this week and into next.

Stockpiles are about 82.6% above their levels of a year ago and about 5.8% below the five-year average.

The EIA reported that U.S. working stocks of natural gas totaled about 1.63 trillion cubic feet, around 101 billion cubic feet below the five-year average of 1.73 trillion cubic feet and 737 billion cubic feet above last year’s total for the same period. Working gas in storage totaled 892 billion cubic feet for the same period a year ago.

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

Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM), the country’s largest producer of natural gas, traded up about 0.4% to $87.79, in a 52-week range of $82.68 to $104.76.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK) traded up about 0.7%, at $14.51 in a 52-week range of $13.38 to $29.92.

EOG Resources Inc. (NYSE: EOG) traded up about 0.5% to $98.21. The 52-week range is $81.07 to $118.89.

Furthermore, the United States Natural Gas ETF (NYSEMKT: UNG) traded down about 1.3%, at $12.88 in a 52-week range of $12.49 to $26.88.

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