NEW YORK, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Front-month U.S. natural gas futures extended losses early Thursday after a government report showed a weekly inventory withdrawal that again fell short of market expectations.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration report showed total domestic gas inventories fell last week by 157 billion cubic feet to 2.527 trillion cubic feet. Traders and analysts polled by Reuters had expected a 162 bcf draw.

At 10:33 a.m. EST (1533 GMT), front-month gas futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange slid 11.9 cents, or 3.6 percent, to $3.187 per million British thermal units.

Just prior to release of the weekly storage data at 10:30 a.m., the front month was trading at around $3.28.

(Reporting By Joe Silha; editing by John Wallace) Keywords: MARKETS NYMEX/NATGAS

(joe.silha@thomsonreuters.com)(+1 646 223 6071)(Reuters Messaging: joe.silha.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)

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