The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported on Thursday that U.S. natural-gas supplies in storage rose by 16 billion cubic feet for the week ended July 21. Analysts had called for a storage increase of 21 billion cubic feet on average, according to a survey conducted by S&P Global Commodity Insights. Total working gas in storage for the week was at 2.987 trillion cubic feet, up 573 billion cubic feet from a year ago and 345 billion cubic feet above the five-year average, the government said. In Thursday dealings, August natural gas
NGQ23,
traded at $2.538 per million British thermal units, down 12.7 cents, or 4.8%, on the New York Mercantile Exchange, ahead of the contract’s expiration at the end of the session. Prices traded at $2.58 ahead of the supply data.
