Natural gas prices rose Thursday after weekly inventory data showed a smaller-than-expected increase in natural-gas stockpiles. Futures for September delivery settled up 1.5 cents, or 0.5%, to $2.813 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Natural-gas inventories rose by 32 billion cubic feet in the week ended July 31, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said Thursday. Analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had expected a storage injection of 43 billion cubic feet. The lower-than-expected build indicates that consumption was higher than expected, said Ben Smith, president of market-data service First Enercast Financial. Prices turned positive on the report. “Demand seems to be very strong, Mr. Smith said. “That’s going to feed into lowering everyone’s estimates [of storage injections] for the next two weeks, at least.” But weather forecasts released Wednesday and Thursday called for cooler temperatures, which could lower natural-gas […]