Warmer weather caused natural gas demand in the U.S. to fall 4% in the week ended May 9 as supply held steady, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its latest "Natural Gas Weekly Update" released May 10.

Residential and commercial gas use continued to drop, down 37% compared with the previous report. Natural gas consumption for power generation increased by 14% compared with the previous week due to the higher temperatures. Industrial-sector consumption fell 3% week over week.

Natural gas exports to Mexico increased slightly to 4.4 Bcf/d during the review period, while LNG export pipeline receipts decreased from 3.8 Bcf/d to 3.3 Bcf/d, the EIA said.

Six LNG vessels, with a combined carrying capacity of 21.0 Bcf, left the Sabine Pass liquefaction terminal from May 3 to May 9. One vessel was loading at Cheniere Energy Inc.'s Sabine Pass facility, and another was loading at the Dominion Energy Inc. Cove Point terminal May 9. The two vessel had a combined carrying capacity of 7.3 Bcf.

U.S. natural gas supply averaged 85.9 Bcf/d, the same total from the prior week. Average net imports from Canada increased about 100 MMcf/d from the previous week.

Net injections for the week ending May 4 beat the five-year average of 75 Bcf, after totaling 89 Bcf. Storage levels totaled 1,432 Bcf, about 520 Bcf below the five-year average.