US natgas futures up on cooler weather ahead of storage report

NEW YORK: US natural gas futures climbed about 2percent on Thursday on forecasts for cooler weather and higher heating demand over the next two weeks than previously expected.

Gas futures for March delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 5.2 cents, or 1.7percent, to USD3.063 per million British thermal units. On Wednesday, the contract closed at its lowest since October 17 for a second day in a row.

That price increase came ahead of a federal storage report expected to show energy firms pulled a near-normal 146 billion cubic feet of gas out of storage during the week ended February 13.

That compares with a decline of 182 bcf during the same week last year and an average withdrawal of 151 bcf for the period over the last five years (2021-2025).

There is about 6percent less gas in storage than usual for this time of year. Analysts, however, expect most of that deficit will be wiped out by early March.

In the cash market, average prices at the Waha Hub in the Permian Basin in West Texas remained in negative territory for a 10th straight day and the 19th time so far this year, as pipeline constraints trapped gas in the nation’s biggest oil-producing basin.

Daily Waha prices closed below zero in 2019. They did so 17 times in 2019, six times in 2020, once in 2023, a record 49 times in 2024, and 39 times in 2025.