The NYMEX July natural gas futures contract jumped 5.7 cents Friday to $3.022/MMBtu, the first time the prompt-month contract has reached above $3/MMBtu since late January, as hot weather in the coming days are likely to suppress storage-building efforts. The price jump above $3/MMBtu was “pretty big,” said Daniel Myers, market analyst at Gelber & Associates. Prices were last seen above the $3/MMBtu level in January. That came when a demand surge put storage levels at a 17.5% deficit to the five-year average for the week ended January 26, according to Energy Information Administration data. The price movement “is even more surprising after yesterday’s bearish storage report,” Myers said. The EIA reported a 96-Bcf injection to gas storage stocks Thursday for the week that ended June 8, a build well above market expectations. The current stock level of 1.913 Tcf is a 21% deficit from the five-year average of […]