Natural Gas Gains After Bigger-than-expected Supply Decline

Natural-gas futures on Thursday climbed after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that supplies of natural gas declined by 111 billion cubic feet for the week ended Feb. 13. Analysts surveyed by Platts forecast a decline of between 105 billion cubic feet and 109 billion cubic feet. Total stocks now stand at 2.157 trillion cubic feet, up 678 billion cubic feet from a year ago and 58 billion cubic feet above the five-year average, the government said. March natural gas was at $2.85 per million British thermal units, up 2 cents, or 0.7%. It was trading around $2.82 before the data.