Natural gas stockpiles up in new data

The price of June contracts for natural gas on the New York Mercantile Exchange dropped 2 cents to $7.86 per million British thermal units in early afternoon trade on Thursday. The decline came after new data showing that US natural gas storage was up by 96 billion cubic feet in the week ending May 4. This increase took inventories to 1.75 trillion cubic feet, 20 percent above the 5-year average.

Elsewhere, the price of West Texas Intermediate crude for June delivery dropped 10 cents to $61.45 per barrel in Nymex trade. June Nymex gasoline, however, added 8 cents to $2.32 per gallon, while June Nymex heating oil gained 5 cents to $1.86 per gallon.