NEW YORK: US natural gas futures edged up to a one-week high on Tuesday on a preliminary decline in daily output.
That small price increase came despite forecasts for milder weather and lower demand over the next two weeks than previously expected and a daily decline in the amount of gas flowing to US liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plants.
Front-month gas futures for May delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 2.6 cents, or 0.9percent, to USD2.837 per million British thermal units (mmBtu), putting the contract on track for its highest close since March 31. In the cash market, average prices at the Waha Hub in West Texas remained in negative territory for a record 42 days in a row as pipeline constraints continued to trap gas in the Permian region, the nation’s biggest oil-producing shale basin.
Daily Waha prices first averaged below zero in 2019. They did so 17 times in 2019, six times in 2020, once in 2023, 49 times in 2024, 39 times in 2025, and a record 51 times so far this year.
Financial firm LSEG said average gas output in the US Lower 48 states rose to 111.2 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) so far in April, up from 110.4 bcfd in March. That compares with a monthly record high of 110.7 bcfd in December 2025.
But on a daily basis, gas output was on track to drop by around 3.0 bcfd over the past two days to a preliminary two-week low of 108.9 bcfd on Tuesday due mostly to declines in Louisiana and Arkansas, according to LSEG data. Preliminary data, however, is often revised later in the day.
Analysts projected that mostly mild weather so far this spring has allowed energy firms to inject more gas into storage than usual, boosting inventories to a forecast 5percent above normal levels during the week ended April 3, up from 3percent above normal during the week ended March 27.
Meteorologists forecast the weather will remain mostly warmer than normal through April 22.
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