Natural gas prices surged to a yearly high on Thursday as cold temperatures across the U.S. boosted the need for heating fuel. Traders also looked ahead to the Energy Information Administration's weekly inventory report.
February natural gas settled at $6.009 per million British thermal units, a rise of 37.2 cents on the session.
The EIA report is due at 10:30 a.m. ET. Last week's report showed a draw of 124 billion cubic feet.
As of the data, stockpiles were 379 bcf higher than the year-ago levels and 150 bcf above the five-year average.
EIA data released Wednesday revealed crude oil inventories increased by 1.3 million barrels to 327.3 million in the week ended January 1. A more modest rise of 200,000 barrels was predicted.
Total motor gasoline inventories increased by 3.7 million barrels last week. Distillate fuel inventories decreased by 300,000 barrels.
Light sweet crude for February delivery rose to $83.18 per barrel, up $1.41 on the session. Prices had briefly dipped as low as $80.85 but later reached as high as $83.52.
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