Front-month natural gas futures for the U.S. fell to their lowest point in 11 months on September 22, then climbed slightly after the release of a report which showed that inventories increased slightly-less-than-expected. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) report indicated that the country's total gas inventories increased 89 billion cubic feet, slightly below the 91 billion cubic feet that a Reuters poll of analysts and traders predicted.

In morning trading, New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) front-month gas NGc1 sank as low as $3.662 per million British thermal units before rising to an intraday high of $3.76 right before the EIA report was issued.

Canadian brokerage firm Canaccord Genuity provided guidance on the continued weak prices of NYMEX gas, stating that the commodity's repeated failure to rise above $4 over the last several weeks is in line with their expectations. Cannacord attributed much of this price situation to flagging demand, stating that economic growth is slowing amid the European debt problems. Gas prices are also being hampered by the weather as the low demand shoulder period begins.