The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported Thursday morning that U.S. natural gas stocks increased by 68 billion cubic feet for the week ending September 4. Analysts were expecting a storage injection (increase) of between 72 billion and 76 billion cubic feet. The five-year average for the week is an increase of around 63 billion cubic feet, and last year’s addition for the week totaled 90 billion cubic feet.

Natural gas futures for September delivery traded up about 2.2% in advance of the EIA’s report, at around $2.69 per million BTUs, and rose slightly to $2.71 following release of the report. Last Thursday, natural gas closed at $2.71 per million BTUs, and over the past five trading days, natural gas futures peaked $2.71. The 52-week low for natural gas futures is $2.63, which was posted Thursday morning. One year ago, the price for a million BTUs was around $3.84.

On Wednesday, the EIA forecast that natural gas prices will average $2.84 per million BTUs in 2015 and $3.11 in 2016. The August forecast called for $2.89 this year and $3.21 next year, and the July forecast called for $2.97 this year and $3.31 in 2016.

The EIA also forecast that production of marketed gas would rise by 4.2 billion cubic feet per day in 2015 and by 1.7 billion cubic feet per day in 2016. The 2015 forecast is up by about 200 million cubic feet per day and the 2016 forecast is marginally lower. Researchers at Bentek Energy estimate 2015 production will average about 72.4 billion cubic feet per day. The EIA’s estimate on full-year production will be published later this month.

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Demand for natural gas is expected to be moderate for the rest of this week and into next as cool weather moves across the eastern United States. Weather in the west will be warmer before cooling off next week.

Stockpiles are more than 17% above their levels of a year ago and about 4% above the five-year average.

The EIA reported that U.S. working stocks of natural gas totaled about 3.261 trillion cubic feet, around 127 billion cubic feet above the five-year average of 3.134 trillion cubic feet and 473 billion cubic feet above last year’s total for the same period. Working gas in storage totaled 2.788 trillion cubic feet for the same period a year ago.

Here is 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 up about 0.7%, at $72.51 in a 52-week range of $66.55 to $98.05.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK) traded up about 2.1% to $7.79. The stock’s 52-week range is $6.01 to $25.64.

EOG Resources Inc. (NYSE: EOG) traded up about 1.0% to $77.88. The 52-week range is $68.15 to $106.09.

In addition, the United States Natural Gas ETF (NYSEMKT: UNG) traded up about 2.5%, at $12.86 in a 52-week range of $12.28 to $23.73.

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