The NYMEX April natural gas futures contract rose 3.9 cents to $2.308/MMBtu as of 12:58 a.m. EDT (1658 GMT) Friday on short-covering and increased demand, analysts said.
Energy research firm Canaccord Genuity said that during the current week, gas-fired power demand has been running around 4 Bcf/d higher year-on-year due to coal-to-gas fuel switching in the power sector and nuclear plant outages.
The gas contract price increased after Thursday's decline of 9.1 cents after the release of a federal storage report that showed the first injection of the year at 11 Bcf, which was on the higher end of analyst expectations.
"The natural gas market is doing its best to shrug off both yesterday's price decline and the fundamental factors that sparked the Thursday's drop," including the 11 Bcf net injection, said Citi Futures Perspective analyst Tim Evans.
The April gas contract has traded in a range between $2.261/MMBtu and $2.325/MMBtu so far Friday.
