On its first day as the prompt month, the NYMEX July natural gas futures contract slid 14.1 cents to settle at $2.706/MMBtu on Thursday, as the market reacted to government data that showed a build to storage stocks well above expectations. US natural gas in storage rose 112 Bcf to 2.101 Tcf in the week ended May 22, the Energy Information Administration said Thursday, well above consensus expectations of an injection of 97-101 Bcf. “This action we saw today comes after a much larger-than-expected build,” said Gene McGillian, senior analyst at Tradition Energy. “It really points out the market’s vulnerability when pushing above that $3[/MMBtu] level.” McGillian, who has argued before that market fundamentals did not support levels above $3/MMBtu, noted that production growth continues to surprise. Despite a sharply lower rig count, “the market is showing that we still have a lot of gas coming out of the […]