Investing.com - U.S. natural gas futures fell to the lowest level in almost three weeks on Wednesday, as market players looked ahead to fresh weekly information on U.S. gas inventories to gauge the strength of demand for the fuel.
Natural gas for delivery in November on the New York Mercantile Exchange slumped 2.5 cents, or 0.84%, to $2.939 per million British thermal units by 9:20AM ET (13:20GMT), within sight of a three-week low of $2.866 touched earlier this week.
Market participants awaited weekly supply data due on Thursday, which is expected to show a build of approximately 67 billion cubic feet in the week ended September 30.
That compares with a gain of 49 billion cubic feet in the preceding week, 97 billion a year earlier and a five-year average build of 95 billion cubic feet.
Total natural gas in storage currently stands at 3.600 trillion cubic feet, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, 2.5% higher than levels at this time a year ago and 6.1% above the five-year average for this time of year.
Meanwhile, traders continued to monitor the path of Hurricane Matthew amid easing concerns that it will disrupt offshore production in the Gulf of Mexico.
Gas futures have made a dramatic recovery in recent months, rising nearly 50% since hitting a 20-year low of $1.611 in early March, as an unusually warm summer helped trim a supply surplus that was weighing on prices.
Despite the recent rally, gains are likely to remain limited as traders react to the reality that higher summer demand for the commodity is coming to an end.
Demand for natural gas tends to rise in the summer months as warmer temperatures increase the need for gas-fired electricity to power air conditioning.
But with autumn having started on September 22, power burns to feed air conditioning demand have probably peaked for now, market analysts said.