NYMEX June natural gas futures settled 3.4 cents higher at $2.949/MMBtu Thursday as the market reacted to a government storage report that showed an inventory build below expectations. US natural gas in storage rose 92 Bcf to 1.99 Tcf for the week ended May 15, the US Energy Information Administration said Thursday. The net injection was below consensus expectations of an injection between 93 Bcf and 97 Bcf. In the corresponding week last year, the EIA reported a 106-Bcf injection, while the five-year average is an 89-Bcf injection. “The smaller than expected [EIA injection] number popped us above $3.00[/MMBtu], but the market is finding some resistance above [that price level],” said Gene McGillian, senior analyst at Tradition Energy. McGillian said that there are a couple of factors creating that resistance. The first is that production levels remain very high, despite a recent slowdown in the rate of production growth, […]