NEW YORK: US natural gas futures gained less than 1% on Friday as liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports continued to hit fresh record highs and on forecasts for cooler weather and more heating demand in coming weeks. That small increase came despite a steady rise in output and a surprise build in weekly inventories.

The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said US utilities injected 8 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas into storage during the week ended November 6. That compares with the 3-bcf draw analysts forecast in a Reuters poll and an increase of 12 bcf during the same week last year and a five-year (2015-19) average build of 33 bcf.

Front-month gas futures rose 1.9 cents, or 0.6%, to settle at $2.995 per million British thermal units. For the week, the contract gained around 3%, after losing almost 14% last week.

Data provider Refinitiv said output in the Lower 48 US states averaged 89.0 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) so far in November, up from a five-month low of 87.4 bcfd in October.

As the weather turns seasonally cooler, Refinitiv projected demand, including exports, would jump from 92.2 bcfd this week to 103.8 bcfd next week, and 105.2 bcfd in two weeks.

The amount of gas flowing to US LNG export plants averaged 10.1 bcfd so far in November, up from a five-month high of 7.7 bcfd in October, as rising prices in Europe and Asia in recent months have prompted global buyers to purchase more US gas.

That tops the 9.8-bcfd US LNG export capacity and compares with an all-time monthly high for feedgas of 8.7 bcfd in February. LNG plants can pull in a little more gas than they can export since they use some of the fuel to run the facility.