Natural gas futures fell on Wednesday after expectations that supplies will fall less than expected later this week prompted a round of profit taking.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, natural gas futures for delivery in February traded at USD3.413 per million British thermal units, down 1.23%.
The commodity hit a session low of USD3.365 and a high of USD3.455.
Natural gas prices have shot up in recent sessions after weather forecasts indicated that cooler-than-normal temperatures will return in the coming weeks.
However, expectations that government data will reveal only soft declines in inventories lead to profit taking on Wednesday.
Late last week, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report that natural gas storage in the U.S. in the week ended Jan. 4 fell by 201 billion cubic feet, compared to expectations for a decline of 186 billion cubic feet.
Inventories fell by 95 billion cubic feet in the same week a year earlier, while the five-year average change for the week represented a decline of 149 billion cubic feet.
Total U.S. natural gas storage stood at 3.316 trillion cubic feet as of last week. Stocks were 88 billion cubic feet less than last year at this time and 320 billion cubic feet above the five-year average of 2.996 trillion cubic feet for this time of year.
The report showed that in the East Region, stocks were 93 billion cubic feet above the five-year average, following net withdrawals of 113 billion cubic feet.
Stocks in the Producing Region were 156 billion cubic feet above the five-year average of 996 billion cubic feet, after a net withdrawal of 61billion cubic feet.