Natural gas reserves increases, short of analyst expectations

Natural gas stocks grow less than expected

NEW YORK — Natural gas stockpiles rose less than expected last week, the government said Thursday.

The Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report that natural gas inventories held in underground storage in the lower 48 states grew by 73 billion cubic feet to about 1.83 trillion cubic feet for the week ended April 16.

Analysts expected a boost of between 76 billion and 80 billion cubic feet, according to a survey by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.

The inventory level was 18.5 percent above the five-year average of about 1.54 trillion cubic feet, and 5.5 percent above last year’s storage level of about 1.73 trillion cubic feet, according to the government data.

Natural gas rose by 15.5 cents to $4.110 per 1,000 cubic feet on the New York Mercantile Exchange.