NEW YORK: US natural gas futures fell about 2% to a more than two-week low on Monday, weighed down by lower demand forecasts for this week than previously expected due primarily to a drop in feedgas to the Freeport LNG export plant in Texas.
Front-month gas futures NGc1 for April delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange were 3.4 cents lower, or 1.9%, to $1.74 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) by 10:16 a.m. ET.
“As long as it’s (Freeport LNG) offline, the market is going to stay little sluggish,... there’s not enough weather demand too, to overcompensate for the that loss of demand on the LNG export” said Thomas Saal, senior vice president for energy at StoneX Financia.
Gas flows to the seven big US liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plants slid to an average of 12.3 bcfd so far in April, down from 13.1 bcfd in March. That compares with a monthly record of 14.7 bcfd in December.
The amount of gas flowing to Freeport was at 0.1 bcfd on Monday, down from a recent high of 1.1 bcfd on Tuesday and an average of 0.4 bcfd over the prior seven days.
Financial firm LSEG said gas output in the Lower 48 US states has fallen to an average of 97.6 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) so far in April, down from 100.8 bcfd in March. That compares with a monthly record of 105.6 bcfd in December 2023.
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