Tropical Storm Bertha Fails to Spark Significant Price Surge in Natural Gas

Natural gas futures barely budged on Thursday as traders weighed in on Tropical Storm Bertha and higher temperatures. The storm's potential impact on Gulf energy infrastructure was noted by market watchers, but strong production and healthy storage levels tempered expectations of a significant price surge.

The August natural gas futures contract rose $0.016, or 0.55%, to $2.941 per million British thermal units (Btu) at 16:26 GMT on Thursday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. This marked a modest gain for the week, but overall prices remain down 7% year-to-date.

New data from the US Energy Information Administration showed that domestic natural gas stockpiles increased by 32 billion cubic feet last week, below the consensus forecast of 35 billion cubic feet. The East and Midwest regions contributed to the supply injections, with each adding 17 billion cubic feet to storage.