Natural-gas futures climbed sharply Thursday after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported on a slightly smaller-than-expected weekly rise in domestic natural-gas supplies. Inventories of the fuel in storage climbed by 99 billion cubic feet for the week ended May 12, the EIA said. Analysts called for a storage increase of 106 billion cubic feet on average, according to a survey conducted by S&P Global Commodity Insights. Total working gas in storage for the latest week was at 2.240 trillion cubic feet, up 521 billion cubic feet from a year ago and 340 billion cubic feet above the five-year average, the government said. Following the data, June natural gas NGM23 was up 10.8 cents, or 4.6%, at $2.473 per million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices traded at $2.394 shortly before the supply data.
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