The NYMEX September natural gas futures contract shot up Thursday morning following the release of a storage report that showed an injection below analyst expectations.
As of 10:41 a.m. EDT (1441 GMT), the contract was trading at $3.067/MMBtu, up 13.4 cents from Wednesday's settlement.
The report "was a little less than the market was looking for and enough to give us a bounce over that magic [$3/MMBtu] number," said Phil Flynn, a senior market analyst with Price Futures Group.
The US Energy Information Administration Thursday estimated a 24-Bcf build to natural gas storage stocks for the week ended Friday. Analysts had expected a build of 27 to 31 Bcf.
EIA reported a 31-Bcf injection in the corresponding week of 2011 and the five-year-average injection is 45 Bcf.
Drew Wozniak, a vice president with ICAP Energy, put support at $2.840/MMBtu and resistance at $3.123/MMBtu.
The contract has been trading Thursday between $2.876/MMBtu and $3.088/MMBtu.
