NEW YORK: US natural gas futures edged up to a near 30-month high on Monday as rising global gas prices offset forecasts for slightly less hot weather and lower air conditioning demand over the next two weeks than previously expected. Front-month gas futures rose 2.4 cents, or 0.7%, to $3.698 per million British thermal units at 8:32 a.m. EDT (1221 GMT), putting the contract within a penny of its highest close since December 2018.
US speculators last week boosted their net long futures and options positions on the New York Mercantile and Intercontinental Exchanges for a sixth week in a row to their highest since May 2017 on expectations US exports would reach fresh record highs as global gas prices soar with low stockpiles around the world. The amount of gas in US storage for the winter of 2021-2022 was almost 7% below the five-year (2016-2020) normal for this time of year.
Data provider Refinitiv said US output in the Lower 48 states slipped to 91.5 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) so far in July due mostly to pipeline problems in West Virginia earlier in the month. That compares with an average of 92.2 bcfd in June and an all-time high of 95.4 bcfd in November 2019.
Refinitiv projected average gas demands, including exports, would rise from 91.9 bcfd this week to 94.0 bcfd next week as the weather turns seasonally hotter. Those forecasts, however, were lower than Refinitiv projected on Friday.
The amount of gas flowing to US liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plants averaged 10.9 bcfd so far in July, up from 10.1 bcfd in June but still below the record 11.5 bcfd in April.
With European and Asian gas both trading over $12 per mmBtu, analysts said buyers around the world would keep purchasing all the LNG the United States can produce. US pipeline exports to Mexico, meanwhile, averaged 6.5 bcfd so far in July, down from a record 6.8 bcfd in June.
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