Mubasher: US natural gas stockpiles shrunk less than expected in the week ended 2 March, data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed on Thursday.

Storage reached around 1.625 billion cubic feet last week, down from 1.682 billion cubic feet in the previous week.

Economists had expected a sharper decline of 58 million cubic feet during the week.

On an annual basis, stockpiles dropped by 29.5% from 2,305 million cubic feet.

By 03:31 pm GMT, Nymex natural gas futures retreated around 0.9% to $2.75 per million British thermal units (BTUs).