NEW YORK: US natural gas futures climbed up about 2% on Thursday on record gas flows to liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plants and forecasts for a little cooler weather over the next two weeks than previously expected.
On its first day as the front-month, gas futures for April delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 7.6 cents, or 1.9%, to $4.035 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) at 10:41 a.m. EST (1541 GMT).
That price increase came despite near record output, forecast for less demand over the next two weeks than previously expected and a report showing last week’s storage withdrawal was slightly smaller than expected.
The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said energy firms pulled 261 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas out of storage during the week ended February 21.
That was a little less than the 266-bcf withdrawal analysts forecast in a Reuters poll and compares with a drop of 86 bcf during the same week last year and a five-year average draw of 141 bcf for this time of year.
Analysts noted that withdrawal, while smaller than expected, was still much bigger than usual for this time of year as utilities pulled massive amounts of gas from storage to heat homes and businesses during frigid weather last week.
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