NEW YORK: US natural gas futures climbed about 3 percent to a one-week high on Thursday on near-record gas flows to liquefied natural gas export plants and a small decline in output over the past week or so.
Front-month gas futures for January delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 10.0 cents, or 2.5percent, to USD4.124 per million British thermal units (mmBtu), putting the contract on track for its highest close since December 11.
That price increase came ahead of a federal report expected to show last week’s storage withdrawal was much bigger than usual for this time of year as extreme cold boosted heating demand.
Analysts forecast energy firms pulled 169 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas out of storage during the week ended December 12. That figure compares with a decline of 134 bcf during the same week last year and an average withdrawal of 96 bcf over the past five years (2020-2024).
Financial firm LSEG said average gas output in the Lower 48 states eased to 109.5 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) so far in December, down from a monthly record high of 109.6 bcfd in November.
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