American natural gas futures climbed by about 2% on Thursday.

Gas futures for delivery in August on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) rose by 4.7 cents, or 1.5%, to $3.261 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) at 8:54am EDT (12:54am GMT) to $3.261 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) at 8:54am EDT (12:54am GMT). On Wednesday, the contract closed at its lowest level since May 28. Analysts expect energy companies to have added 58 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas to their inventories during the week ending July 4

The financial firm LSEG said that average gas production in the lower 48 US states has reached 106.7 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) so far in July, up from a monthly record of 106.4 bcfd in June.