US natgas futures little changed on expected small storage build

US natural gas futures were little changed on Thursday following the release of a federal report showing last week's storage build was in line with estimates despite forecasts hot weather will keep air conditioning demand high over the next two weeks.

That lack of price movement also came despite a slow increase in output and the lowest liquefied natural gas exports since early 2018.

The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said US utilities injected 45 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas into storage during the week ended July 10.

That was close to the 47-bcf build analysts forecast in a Reuters poll and compares with an increase of 67 bcf during the same week last year and a five-year (2015-19) average build of 63 bcf for the period.

The increase boosts stockpiles to 3.178 trillion cubic feet (tcf), 15.9% above the five-year average of 2.742 tcf for this time of year. By the end of the injection season in October, analysts expect US inventories will reach a record high near 4.1 tcf.

Front-month gas futures remained unchanged at $1.775 per million British thermal units by 10:34 a.m. EDT (1434 GMT).

Refinitiv said production in the Lower 48 US states averaged 88.1 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) so far in July, up from a 20-month low of 87.0 bcfd in June but still well below the all-time monthly high of 95.4 bcfd in November.

As consumers crank up their air conditioners, Refinitiv forecast US demand, including exports, will rise from 90.8 bcfd this week to 93.5 bcfd next week.

Pipeline gas flowing to US LNG export plants averaged 3.2 bcfd (33% utilization) so far in July, down from a 20-month low of 4.1 bcfd in June and a record 8.7 bcfd in February. Utilization was about 90% in 2019.