Mubasher: US natural gas stockpiles posted an above-forecast decrease during the week ended 23 February, data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed on Thursday.

Storage reached 1,682 billion cubic feet last week, from 1,760 billion cubic feet in the previous week.

Economists had forecast a slighter decline of 71 billion cubic feet in the week.

On an annual basis, gas inventories fell by 28.8% from 2,362 billion cubic feet.

By 03:33 pm GMT, Nymex natural gas futures jumped around 0.9% to $2.69 per million British thermal units (BTUs).