U.S. natural-gas supplies fall, but stand above the five-year average

The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported on Thursday that domestic natural-gas supplies fell by 82 billion cubic feet for the week ended Jan. 13. That compared with expectations for a decline of 72 billion cubic feet, according to the average forecast of analysts, brokers and traders surveyed by The Wall Street Journal. Total working gas stocks in storage stand at 2.820 trillion cubic feet, down 19 billion cubic feet from a year ago, but 34 billion cubic feet above the five-year average, the government said. Following the data, February natural gas
NGG23,
-1.00%
was down 1.1 cents, or 0.3%, at $3.30 per million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices traded at $3.34 before the supply data.