By Moming Zhou
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- U.S. natural gas inventories rose 66 billion cubic feet in the week ended July 17, the Energy Information Administration reported Thursday. Analysts surveyed by Platts had expected an increase of 65 to 69 billion cubic feet. After the data, August natural gas futures fell 2.1 cents, or 0.6%, to $3.772 per million British thermal units. At 2,952 billion cubic feet, stocks were 568 billion cubic feet higher than last year at this time and 458 billion cubic feet above the five-year average.
