NEW YORK: US natural gas futures held near a 12-week low on Tuesday on record output and forecasts for lower demand next week than previously expected.

Ongoing power outages from Hurricane Ian at 391,000 homes and businesses in Florida after the storm hit the state on Sept. 28-29 helped reduce the amount of gas generators burned to produce electricity.

Gas demand was also reduced by outages at some liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plants, including Berkshire Hathaway Energy’s 0.8-billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) Cove Point in Maryland for about three weeks of planned work starting Oct. 1 and Freeport LNG’s 2.0-bcfd plant in Texas for unplanned work after an explosion on June 8. Freeport LNG expects the facility to return to at least partial service in early to mid-November.Front-month gas futures for November delivery rose 1.2 cents, or 0.2%, to $6.482 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) at 9:02 a.m. EDT (1302 GMT). On Monday, the contract closed at its lowest level since July 12.

That kept the front-month in technically oversold territory with a relative strength index (RSI) below 30 for a third day in a row.