NEW YORK: US natural gas futures jumped about 6% to a one-month high on Monday on forecasts for more demand this week than previously expected and a drop in gas output so far this month.
In addition to forecasts for colder weather next week that should keep heating demand higher than normal for this time of year, analysts noted gas prices have soared about 30% over the past four days due in part to a jump in US liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports.
Helping boost LNG exports over the past month has been the partial restart of Freeport LNG’s export plant in Texas following a fire in June 2022.
Some analysts, however, have said Freeport LNG will likely not return to full capacity until the end of April.
Freeport LNG, the second-biggest US LNG export plant, was on track on Monday to pull in about 0.8 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) of gas from pipelines for a fifth time in the last six days, data from Refinitiv Eikon showed.
When operating at full power, Freeport LNG can turn about 2.1 bcfd of gas into LNG for export.
The amount of gas flowing to US LNG export plants has jumped to 12.8 bcfd so far in February from 12.3 bcfd in January and just shy of the monthly record of 12.9 bcfd set in March 2022 before Freeport LNG shut.
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