US Nat Gas opens lower on storage surplus - ING

US natural gas prices fell early Thursday as rising inventories outweighed modest weather-driven demand expectations, with the supply surplus building faster than anticipated, ING's commodity experts Ewa Manthey and Warren Patterson note.

Second consecutive triple-digit build raises supply concerns

"US natural gas prices opened lower today as the rising storage levels overshadowed the expectations of favourable weather conditions over the coming weeks. Last week, the EIA reported that the weekly inventories for natural gas rose more than average market expectations, taking the total stockpiles to 2.15Tcf, 1.4% above the five-year average."

"This was the second straight triple-digit weekly inventory build; storage has flipped from a 230Bcf deficit in the first week of March to the current surplus. However, weather forecasts have turned slightly positive with the expectations of warmer weather across the northern and southern regions of the nation."