NYMEX June natural gas futures drifted in overnight US trading ahead of the release of the latest storage data due at 10:30 am EDT (1430 GMT).
At 7:25 am EDT the contract was 1.2 cents higher at $2.766/MMBtu after trading a $2.751-$2.773/MMBtu range.
Faced with a significantly depleted inventories after a withdrawal season that extended three weeks into what is usually the injection season, the market is expecting the first injection in the Energy Information Administration report for the week ending April 27.
The data is expected to show a 49-Bcf injection, according to a survey of analysts by S&P Global Platts.
The range of responses to the survey was for a build of 45-57 Bcf. The 18-Bcf pull reported for the previous week took US gas stocks to 1.281 Tcf, or 897 Bcf below a year earlier and 527 Bcf below the five-year average.
