Natural Gas gained on Friday boosted by oil gains that spurred prices of the heating industrial fuel.

Crude oil gains were sparked by the shutdown of a North pipeline and strikes in Nigeria that reduced output.

Natural gas for May delivery increased by 1.6 percent or 17.3 cents to $10.963 per million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Gas prices advanced to $11 per million Btu and have increased by 47 percent this year.

Gas futures for June delivery gained 1.4 percent or 15.8 cents to $11.101 per million Btu.

There are concerns that the flow of liquefied natural gas into the U.S. is below that of last year because Europe pays more for the fuel to build up inventories.

The U.S. liquefied natural gas imports fell to 900 million cubic feet a day in April from compared to a daily 3.2 billion cubic feet last year.

Nigeria Energy