The weekly natural gas inventory report to be released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration at 10:30 a.m. ET on Thursday, Oct. 19, is expected to show a slower rate of storage building in the week to Oct. 13.

Analysts and traders surveyed ahead of the release of the U.S. Energy Information Administration's upcoming natural gas storage report anticipate an injection of 44 Bcf to 69 Bcf, with the consensus expectation being a storage build of 57 Bcf. That compares to the respective year-ago and five-year average injections of 77 Bcf and 78 Bcf.

Degree day data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for the review week to Oct. 14 reflects weather supportive of demand, outlining cooling degree days that were 114.3% more than normal for the week, while heating degree days were 45.8% fewer than normal for the week.

In the previous week's data, the reported net 87-Bcf injection into natural gas inventories in the Lower 48 during the week that ended Oct. 6 was above the market consensus ahead of the report's release that called for an 84-Bcf build to stocks and was above the 79-Bcf injection reported for the same week in 2016 and in line with the five-year average injection for the week.

The latest build brought the total U.S. working gas supply to 3,595 Bcf, about 153 Bcf below the year-ago level and 8 Bcf below the five-year average storage level of 3,603 Bcf.

The injection anticipated in this week's data would result in a total working gas supply of 3,652 Bcf. The year-on-five-year average deficit would grow to 29 Bcf, while the deficit to the year-ago level would increase to 173 Bcf.

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