The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported Thursday morning that U.S. natural gas stocks increased by 73 billion cubic feet for the week ending May 13. Analysts were expecting a storage addition of around 78 billion cubic feet. The five-year average for the week is an injection of around 91 billion cubic feet, and last year’s storage addition for the week totaled 98 billion cubic feet. Natural gas inventories rose by 56 billion cubic feet in the week ending May 6.

Natural gas futures for June delivery traded flat in advance of the EIA’s report, at around $2.00 per million BTUs, and traded unchanged shortly after the data release. Last Thursday natural gas closed at $2.16 per million BTUs, its high price for the past five trading days. The 52-week range for natural gas is $1.84 to $3.18. One year ago the price for a million BTUs was around $3.17.

The weather forecast through May 24 calls for moderate temperatures over the Great Lakes and northeastern states while temperatures in the south are likely to remain in the 70s and 80s with a few 90-degree days thrown in. The usual unsettled spring weather pattern will keep demand for natural gas low as most areas will experience temperatures too high to turn on their furnaces and the rest will see temperatures too low to fire up air conditioning. At this time of year, demand for natural gas is driven by the weather.

Stockpiles are about 40% above their levels of a year ago and nearly 41% above the five-year average.

The EIA reported that U.S. working stocks of natural gas totaled about 2.754 trillion cubic feet, around 795 billion cubic feet above the five-year average of 1.959 trillion cubic feet and 791 billion cubic feet above last year’s total for the same period. Working gas in storage totaled 1.963 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 0.3%, at $89.07 in a 52-week range of $66.55 to $90.00.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK) traded down about 4.3% to $3.68. The stock’s 52-week range is $1.50 to $15.37.

EOG Resources Inc. (NYSE: EOG) traded down about 2.5% to $78.39. The 52-week range is $57.15 to $91.83.

Furthermore, the United States Natural Gas ETF (NYSEMKT: UNG) traded up about 0.3%, at $6.48 in a 52-week range of $5.78 to $14.91.

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