EIA reports 7 billion-cubic-foot climb in natural-gas supplies

Natural-gas futures saw volatile trading Thursday after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that supplies of the commodity rose 7 billion cubic feet for the week ended April 15. Analysts polled by Platts forecast a climb of 2 billion cubic feet. Total stocks now stand at 2.484 trillion cubic feet, up 881 billion cubic feet from a year ago and 811 billion cubic feet above the five-year average, the government said. May natural gas rose 1.9 cents, or 0.9%, to $2.088 per million British thermal units after briefly trading lower immediately after the supply data. Prices traded at $2.075 before the report.

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