NEW YORK: US natural gas futures gained about 3% to a near one-week high on Wednesday on forecasts for colder weather and higher heating demand over the next two weeks than previously expected.

The gas price increase came despite near record output and reduced liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports that should allow utilities to keep injecting more gas into storage than usual in coming weeks.

Major LNG outages include Berkshire Hathaway Energy’s shutdown of its 0.8-billion-cubic-feet-per-day (bcfd) Cove Point LNG export plant in Maryland for about three weeks of planned maintenance on Oct. 1 and the ongoing shutdown of Freeport LNG’s 2.0-bcfd plant in Texas for unplanned work after an explosion on June 8. Freeport expects the facility to return to at least partial service in early to mid-November.

Front-month gas futures rose 19.1 cents, or 2.9%, to $6.787 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) at 8:01 a.m. EDT (1201 GMT), putting the contract on track for its highest close since Oct. 6.