NEW YORK: US natural gas futures rose about 1% on Tuesday on forecasts for colder weather and more heating demand next week than previously expected, but expectations that Freeport LNG will delay the planned restart of its liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plant in Texas clouded the outlook.

Once the 2.1-billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) Freeport facility returns to service, US gas prices should rise due to an increase in demand from LNG export plants.

On the flip side, the delay in Freeport’s return means there will be less gas available for Europe to import, which helped cause prices there to spike around 9% on Tuesday.

Global gas markets have been extremely focused on news about Freeport this month - US futures have gained or lost more than 5% on seven of the past 10 days - with some people creating fake news releases on Freeport letterhead and posting allegedly fake tweets about pipe cracks to sway the market up or down.