EIA reports a weekly increase in U.S. natural-gas supplies, but data include a 'reclassification' of stocks
The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported on Thursday that domestic supplies of natural gas rose by 16 billion cubic feet for the week ended June 11. The EIA said the data, however, included an adjustment to the week's total to account for a reclassification of some gas stocks from working gas to base gas. Working gas is the volume of gas available in the market. The "implied flow for the week is an increase of 67 bcf to working gas stocks," the EIA said. On average, analysts polled by S&P Global Platts forecast an increase of 78 billion cubic feet in natural-gas stocks. Total stocks now stand at 2.427 trillion cubic feet, down 453 billion cubic feet from a year ago and 126 billion cubic feet below the five-year average, the government said. Following the data, July natural gas was down 4.5 cents, or 1.4%, at $3.21 per million British thermal units. It traded at $3.23 shortly before the data.
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