The NYMEX April natural gas futures contract settled 5.2 cents higher at $3.486/MMBtu Thursday on the back of a US Energy Information Administration storage withdrawal number that was above expectations and new data indicating a decrease in production, sources said.
For the week that ended Friday, the EIA estimated a pull from storage stocks of 171 Bcf, which was slightly larger than consensus estimates for a draw between 166 Bcf and 170 Bcf.
Also, "US monthly natural gas production in December surprised to the downside," noted Barclays Capital analysts.
According to the EIA, "lower-48 December production fell by 830,000 Mcf/d [month-on-month], a much bigger drop than the 100,000 Mcf/d decline shown in pipeline scrape projections," analysts noted.
The April contract has traded between $3.395/MMBtu and $3.508/MMBtu.
