Natural gas increased for a third day on speculation the U.S. government will report a record drop in stockpiles after last week’s cold weather. Futures for February delivery rose as much as 1.4 percent to $4.333 per million British thermal units in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange and were at $4.315 at 4:18 p.m. Singapore time. The contract climbed 5.5 percent yesterday, the most since April 29, to settle at $4.274. The volume of all futures traded was about 13 percent above the 100-day average. Prices are up 2 percent so far this year. Gas inventories probably fell by 303 billion cubic feet in the week ended Jan. 10, Citi Futures Perspective said before Energy Information Administration data on Jan. 16. That would surpass the biggest-ever decline of 285 billion on Dec. 13. Stockpiles totaled 2.817 trillion cubic feet on Jan. 3, 10 percent below the […]