The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported Thursday morning that U.S. natural gas stocks increased by 15 billion cubic feet for the week ending March 18. Analysts were expecting a storage build-up of around 20 billion cubic feet. The five-year average for the week is a withdrawal of around 24 billion cubic feet, and last year’s withdrawal for the week totaled 4 billion cubic feet. The withdrawal from storage totaled 1 billion cubic feet in the previous week.

Natural gas futures for April delivery traded down about 0.3% in advance of the EIA’s report, at around $1.79 per million BTUs, and traded around $1.78 after the data release. Last Thursday natural gas closed at $1.87 per million BTUs. On Friday the contract posted its high for the past five trading days at $1.96. On Wednesday NYMEX trading closed at $1.79. The 52-week range for natural gas is $1.73 to $3.17. The low was posted last Thursday. One year ago the price for a million BTUs was around $3.08.

Three of the EIA’s nine regions reported storage increases in the week ending March 11, making this week’s storage build less of a surprise. The good news for producers is that the size of the build is smaller than expected. Next Thursday, March 31, marks the end of the natural gas withdrawal season, and the EIA noted last week that natural gas in storage may post a new all-time high as we head into the traditional injection season.

Typical spring weather patterns across the United States are expected to prevail over the next week or so: storms moving across the country west to east, heralded by warmer temperatures and followed by cooler. No especially cold air is expected to move down from the north, so demand for heating is expected to be low for the period.

Stockpiles are about 69% above their levels of a year ago and about 51% above the five-year average.

The EIA reported that U.S. working stocks of natural gas totaled about 2.493 trillion cubic feet, around 846 million cubic feet above the five-year average of 1.647 trillion cubic feet and 1.017 trillion cubic feet above last year’s total for the same period. Working gas in storage totaled 1.476 trillion cubic feet for the same period a year ago.

Here’s how share prices of the largest U.S. natural gas producers reacted to this latest report:

Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM), the country’s largest producer of natural gas, traded down about 0.5%, at $83.30 in a 52-week range of $66.55 to $90.09.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK) traded down about 1.7% to $4.06. The stock’s 52-week range is $1.50 to $16.98.

EOG Resources Inc. (NYSE: EOG) traded down about 0.9% to $3.74. The 52-week range is $57.15 to $101.36.

In addition, the United States Natural Gas ETF (NYSEMKT: UNG) traded up about 1.3%, at $6.38 in a 52-week range of $5.78 to $15.28.

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