With February nearing an end and spring beckoning, here’s what might have an effect on natural-gas and heating-oil inventories. Freezing temperatures in the eastern U.S. have depleted natural-gas and heating-oil supplies and provided a lift to futures prices for the month. But that dynamic could dissipate in a hurry. “Natural gas has spring on its mind, not in its step,” quipped Matt Smith, a commodity analyst at Schneider Electric. Officially, spring begins on March 20. Only, don’t tell East Coast dwellers who are suffering through icy temperatures, illustrated in this weather map covering mid-February, provided by AccuWeather.com. AccuWeather.com This week, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported a smaller-than-expected 219 billion-cubic-foot weekly decline in natural-gas stocks in storage. But that was still the second-largest withdrawal this winter, according to Smith. Last year’s so-called Polar Vortex prompted a record weekly withdrawal of 287 billion cubic feet for the week ended Jan. 10, 2014. EIA data also showed that distillate inventories, which include heating oil, have fallen by a total of 9.8 million barrels over the past three weeks and distillate fuel demand was up over 11% during the last four weeks, compared with the same period a year earlier. But “as we move out of this high-demand period of winter, both natural gas and heating oil should see less upward [price] pressure,” Smith said. For the month, ahead of Friday’s close, natural-gas futures NGJ15, -0.95% based on the most-active contracts, were up more than 1%, while heating-oil futuresHOJ5, -1.86% spiked by roughly 15%. Analysts surmise that the workers strike that began this month at various refineries across the country is to blame for the price-gain discrepancy, as heating oil is a refined product. “Even if March trends cold ... we get closer to the next decline in crude-oil prices, which will pull down some of the upside in heating-oil prices by late March,” said Richard Hastings, a macro strategist at Global Hunter Securities. Here’s what AccuWeather.com forecasts for next week. It shows the “core of the cold air shifting westward into the Plains while somewhat milder temperatures affect the East,” explained Brian Edwards, AcccuWeather meteorologist. Myra Saefong