nvesting.com - Natural gas futures edged lower on Thursday, brushing off a bullish U.S. supply report on concerns inbound winter weather systems will not bring frigid enough temperatures needed to drive heating beyond normal for this time of year.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, natural gas futures for delivery in January were down 1.73% at $3.638 per million British thermal units during U.S. trading. The commodity hit a session low of $3.616, and a high of $3.776.

The January contract settled up 1.48% on Wednesday to end at $3.706 per million British thermal units.

Natural gas futures were likely to find support at $3.606 per million British thermal units, Wednesday's low, and resistance at $3.824, last Friday's high.

Natural gas prices rose earlier on news of a bullish U.S. stockpile report but gave back gains on mild weather forecasts.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report that natural gas storage in the U.S. in the week ended Dec. 5 fell by 51 billion cubic feet, more than expectations for a decline of 45 billion and compared to a drop of 22 billion in the previous week.

Inventories fell by 92 billion cubic feet in the same week a year earlier, while the five-year average change is a drop of 72 billion cubic feet.

Total U.S. natural gas storage stood at 3.359 trillion cubic feet. Stocks were 186 billion cubic feet less than last year at this time and 351 billion cubic feet below the five-year average of 3.710 trillion cubic feet for this time of year