NEW YORK: US natural gas futures climbed about 3percent to a one-week high on Thursday on forecasts for more demand over the next two weeks than previously expected.
On its second-to-last day as the front-month, gas futures for October delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 9.6 cents, or 3.4 percent, to USD2.954 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) at 9:16 a.m. EDT (1316 GMT), putting the contract on track for its highest close since September 17.
Futures for November, which will soon be the front-month were up about 4percent to USD3.25 per mmBtu.
That price increase came ahead of the release of a federal storage report expected to show energy firms injected a near-normal 74 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas into storage during the week ended September 19.
That compares with an increase of 49 bcf during the same week last year and an average build of 76 bcf over the past five years.
In the cash market, prices at the Waha Hub in West Texas and the AECO Hub in Alberta remained in negative territory because pipelines in both regions were constrained due to maintenance and other reasons.
For the Waha, that was the 11th time this year prices traded in negative territory.
At AECO, Tuesday was the first time prices averaged below zero at minus 5 cents per mmBtu, Wednesday was the second at minus 18 cents and Thursday was the third at minus 44 cents, putting the contract at a record low for three days in a row, according to LSEG pricing data.
That compares with an average at AECO of USD1.02 per mmBtu so far in 2025, 96 cents in 2024, and an average of USD2.28 over the prior five years (2019-2023).
Traders have noted that pipelines in Alberta have become congested due in part to rising output from producers in Alberta and British Columbia in anticipation of rising demand for Canadian gas from the startup of the first 0.9-bcfd liquefaction train at the LNG Canada export plant in British Columbia.