The NYMEX April gas futures contract resolved at $1.639/ MMBtu Thursday, down 3.9 cents, as a storage space withdrawal that was larger than analyst assumptions failed to push the prompt-month price higher.

Thursday's close was the lowest a prompt-month contract has actually resolved since getting to $1.628/ MMBtu on February 26, 1999.

" Front-month rates are still at a loss after another withdrawal that included in the storage excess, but longer-term futures are moving greater due to the fact that the report was more than expectations as well as revealed a respectable baseline of power generation need," Aaron Calder, an analyst with Gelber & Associates, claimed in a market note.

Calder included that early estimates are requiring a hotter-than-normal summer season, and a very early beginning to the warm can give some upward stress for the May as well as June agreements.

The US Power Details Administration reported a storage space withdrawal of 48 Bcf for the week ending February 26, bringing gas stocks to 2.536 Tcf.

That was available in above the consensus quote of a pull in between 37 Bcf and 41 Bcf from experts checked by Platts.

The April agreement had been trading around 4 cents less than Wednesday's close soon prior to the storage information release.

While beating expectations, the withdrawal was well below the 227-Bcf drawdown reported right now in 2015 as well as the 137-Bcf five-year ordinary withdrawal, according to EIA data.

" Recently's light weather (32% fewer heating degree days than typical) incorporated with a projection for more cozy weather condition likely fallen leaves withdrawal season storage leave at 2.4 Tcf, a level in accordance with 2012 10-year record highs," Tudor Pickering Holt analysts said in a market note. " website cleared throughout that year as well as the very same will certainly happen this year."

The National Weather Service's most current eight- to 14-day projection showed a greater probability of above-normal temperature levels eastern of the Rocky Mountains.

The April agreement traded between $1.633 and $1.695/ MMBtu during the session.

The NYMEX settlement is thought about preliminary and conditional up until a last negotiation rate is published at 7 pm EST (2400 GMT).