LONDON (Commodity Online): The release of EIA's monthly Natural Gas data for May gave the market something to chew on, but the data provided no clear direction, and prices hardly responded. May's data showed that production fell a small 0.1 Bcf/d in the Lower-48 from April. Yet y/y supply growth is still up a stout 4.2 Bcf/d. The 914 data releases this year have featured some months suggesting a small downward slide in production, only to be followed by a month showing a big move up. The data match the expected growth areas well: Texas (Eagle Ford), Louisiana (Haynesville), and "other states" (Marcellus). Demand growth was still intact in May, with industrial demand up a quarter Bcf/d compared with last May and tracking 0.6 Bcf/d higher than last year. The power sector continues to be the demand hero, with consumption up 0.8 Bcf/d this year, boosted by weather and Coal displacement. Gas markets were uninspired and fell slightly. The prompt contract dropped 3 cents, to $4.16 per MMBtu, while rest-of-2011 also slid 3 cents, to $4.27. Calendar 2012 was off 2 cents, to $4.63. Cash markets were mostly flat on the day. Henry Hub moved up less than a cent, to $4.30. SoCalBorder was up a penny, to $4.37, while New York (Transco Z6) reflected a waning of the hot weather price run-up of the past few days, dropping 16 cents, to $4.70.

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