Natural gas stockpiles rise on weak demand

Natural gas inventory levels rose last week, the government said Thursday, with demand from major industrial customers still weak.

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 rose by 70 billion cubic feet to about 2.72 trillion cubic feet for the week ended June 26.

Analysts had expected a boost of between 72 billion and 76 billion cubic feet, according to a survey by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.

One contributor may have been a heat wave that struck the South and Midwest, as people turned up the air conditioning.

The inventory level was 21 percent above the five-year average of about 2.25 trillion cubic feet, and 29 percent above last year's storage level of about 2.11 trillion cubic feet, according to the government data.

Natural gas fell 1 cent to $3.785 per 1,000 cubic feet on the New York Mercantile Exchange.