NEW YORK: US natural gas futures extended their decline to hit the lowest level in nearly a month on Tuesday as ample supplies of gas in storage and forecasts for less demand next week weighed on prices.
Front-month gas futures for October delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell 1.7 cents, or 0.6 percent, at USD2.79 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) at 09:02 a.m. EDT. The contract reached its lowest level since August 27 earlier in the session.
“The market is still reeling from last week’s bigger than expected injection into inventories, which also sort of ruined the momentum,” said Phil Flynn, senior analyst for Price Futures Group.
The US Energy Information Administration last week said energy firms injected 90 billion cubic feet of gas into storage during the week ended September 12. That was the biggest weekly increase since June.
That was bigger than the 80-bcf build analysts forecast in a Reuters poll.
Also weighing on prices, financial firm LSEG projected average gas demand in the Lower 48 states, including exports, to fall from 103.5 bcfd this week to 101.2 bcfd next week.
LSEG said average gas output in the Lower 48 states fell to 107.3 billion cubic feet per day so far in September, down from a record monthly high of 108.3 bcfd in August. US natural gas production is projected to reach record highs this winter, helping to meet both domestic consumption and rising liquefied natural gas export demand, according to the Natural Gas Supply Association’s 2025–2026 Winter Outlook.
“Beyond the near term, our outlook remains bullish to the current forward curve... We believe the fall bearishness is already priced in. With LNG gains, we should see not only a seasonal uplift to forwards, but our outlook is bullish to the most recent settlement,” said Robert DiDona, president of Energy Ventures Analysis.
The average amount of gas flowing to the eight big US LNG export plants stood at 15.3 bcfd so far in September, compared with 15.8 bcfd in August. That compares with a monthly record high of 16.0 bcfd in April.
On the storm front, hurricane Gabrielle has strengthened into a Category 4 storm, according to the US National Hurricane Center. Additionally, there is a 50percent chance of cyclone formation within the next 48 hours in the Central and Western Tropical Atlantic.
“We are seeing a very active Atlantic. And there’s some big storms there, and you know it’s probably not going to affect production that much,” Flynn added.
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