NEW YORK: US natural gas futures fell about 1% on Friday with output holding near a monthly record and as global gas prices eased.
That US price decline came despite forecasts for warm weather to remain through the end of September, which will force power generators to keep burning lots of gas to keep air conditioners humming.
In addition to rising output, the drop in US gas prices also came on expectations demand would decline when the Cove Point liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in Maryland shuts for a couple weeks of maintenance in October.
US gas demand has already been reduced for months by the ongoing outage at the Freeport LNG export plant in Texas which has left more gas in the United States for utilities to inject into stockpiles for next winter.
Freeport, the second-biggest US LNG export plant, was consuming about 2 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) of gas before it shut on June 8. Freeport LNG expects the facility to return to at least partial service in early to mid-November.
Front-month gas futures fell 4 cents, or 0.5%, to $8.284 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) at 8:00 a.m. EDT (1200 GMT). For the week, the front-month was up about 3% after falling about 9% last week.
So far this year, gas futures are up about 121% as higher prices in Europe and Asia keep demand for US LNG exports strong. Global gas prices have soared due to supply disruptions and sanctions linked to Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.
Gas was trading around $56 per mmBtu in Europe and $45 in Asia. That was a 10% drop for European futures.
Russian gas exports via the three main lines into Germany - Nord Stream 1 (Russia-Germany), Yamal (Russia-Belarus-Poland-Germany) and the Russia-Ukraine-Slovakia-Czech Republic-Germany route - have averaged just 1.3 bcfd so far in September, down from 2.5 bcfd in August and 10.8 bcfd in September 2021.
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