Investing.com - U.S. natural gas futures rose to a two-week high on Thursday morning, after data showed that natural gas supplies in storage in the U.S. fell much more than the five-year average for this time of year last week.
Natural gas for January delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange tacked on 2.0 cents, or 0.6%, to $3.562 per million British thermal units by 10:45AM ET (15:45GMT). It rallied to as high as $3.627 in the immediate aftermath of the bullish storage report. Futures were at around $3.595 prior to the release of the supply data.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report that natural gas storage in the U.S. declined by 209 billion cubic feet in the week ended December 16, exceeding market expectations for a drop of 201 billion cubic feet.
It was the biggest withdrawal for the week since 2010.
That compared with a decline of 147 billion cubic feet in the preceding week, 32 billion a year earlier and a five-year average drop of 101 billion cubic feet.
Total natural gas in storage currently stands at 3.597 trillion cubic feet, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, 5.9% lower than levels at this time a year ago and 2.1% above the five-year average for this time of year.