US natgas futures ease on increase in output, lower demand forecast

NEW YORK: US natural gas futures eased to a 13-week low on Friday on a small increase in daily output, ample amounts of gas in storage and lowered forecasts for heating demand next week.

Front-month gas futures for February delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell 2.5 cents, or 0.8percent, to settle at USD3.103 per million British thermal units, their lowest close since October 17.

That also put the contract down for a third week in a row for the first time since September, losing 29percent during that time.

In other news, Japanese trading house Mitsubishi will buy the US shale production and infrastructure assets of privately-held Aethon Energy Management for USD7.53 billion.

The White House on Friday urged PJM, the largest US electric grid, to conduct an emergency power auction to protect against rolling blackouts as energy demand from data centers grows faster than the country can build new generation plants.

In the cash gas market, average prices at the Waha Hub in the Permian Shale in West Texas remained in negative territory for a fourth day in a row and the seventh time this year as pipeline constraints trapped gas in the nation’s biggest oil-producing basin.

Waha prices have averaged a negative 32 cents per mmBtu so far this year, compared with USD1.15 in 2025 and a five-year average (2021-2025) of USD2.88.

Daily Waha prices first settled below zero in 2019. They did so 17 times in 2019, six times in 2020, once in 2023, a record 49 times in 2024, and 39 times in 2025.

Financial firm LSEG said average gas output in the Lower 48 states slid to 109.1 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) so far in January from a monthly record high of 109.7 bcfd in December.