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 April 3. Analysts expected a storage injection (increase) of 9 billion to 13 billion cubic feet. The five-year average for the week is a 2 billion cubic foot withdrawal, and last year’s drawdown totaled 8 billion cubic feet.

Natural gas futures for May delivery traded up about 0.3% in advance of the EIA’s report, at around $2.63 per million BTUs, and tumbled to around $2.55 (down nearly 2.3% for the day) following release of the report. At $2.56, natural gas futures have dropped about $0.12 per million BTUs over the past five trading days. The 52-week low for natural gas futures had been $2.58. One year ago the price for a million BTUs was around $4.20.

Demand for heating is expected to be low for the rest of this week and into the first part of next week. Cold air from Canada is not expected to push into the United States, although some cooler weather is forecast for the Northwest and the Northeast.

The peak demand season for natural gas runs from November through March. Last week marks the first inventory build since last October. As storage injections begin, producers and traders will keep an eye on storage capacity. Continuing high levels of production could have an impact on storage costs and, ultimately, city gate prices.

Stockpiles are about 78.9% above their levels of a year ago and about 10.5% below the five-year average.

The EIA reported that U.S. working stocks of natural gas totaled about 1.48 trillion cubic feet, around 173 billion cubic feet below the five-year average of 1.65 trillion cubic feet and 651 billion cubic feet above last year’s total for the same period. Working gas in storage totaled 825 billion cubic feet for the same period a year ago.

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Here is how stocks 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 0.1%, at $83.97 in a 52-week range of $82.68 to $104.76.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK) traded up about 0.5%, at $15.17 in a 52-week range of $13.38 to $29.92.

EOG Resources Inc. (NYSE: EOG) traded up about 1.1% to $95.00. The 52-week range is $81.07 to $118.89.

Furthermore, the United States Natural Gas ETF (NYSEMKT: UNG) traded down about 2.1%, at $12.91 in a 52-week range of $12.75 to $26.88. The low was set following the EIA report.

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