Due to a lower-than-expected inventory increase last week, U.S. natural gas futures rose by more than 2% on Thursday.

Gas futures for October delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange were up 6.4 cents, or about 2.8%, to $2.335 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) at 10:41 EDT (13:41 GMT) to $2.335 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) as of 10:41 EDT (13:41 GMT). According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), utilities added 40 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas to inventories during the week ending September 6. This figure is lower than the 48 billion cubic feet predicted by analysts and compares to an injection of 50 billion cubic feet during the same week a year ago and an average increase over five years (2019-2023) of 67 billion cubic feet for this time of the year