NEW YORK: US natural gas futures eased about 1% to a one-week low on Wednesday on forecasts for demand to drop and output to rise once the weather turns warmer than normal in late January.

Also weighing on prices, the amount of gas flowing to US liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plants fell on Tuesday to a one-year low as some energy firms likely sold their gas into the domestic market after extreme cold this week boosted US power gas prices to multi-year highs in several regions.

The extreme cold also cut gas supplies by freezing wells and increased daily gas demand to a record high on Tuesday.

Front-month gas futures for February delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell 3.0 cents, or 1.0%, to settle at $2.870 per million British thermal units (mmBtu), their lowest close since Jan. 4.

As the extreme cold moves into the US Northeast, spot power and gas prices in New York and New England jumped to their highest since February 2023.

Financial company LSEG said average gas output in the Lower 48 states fell to 103.2 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) so far in January from a monthly record of 108.0 bcfd in December.

On a daily basis, US gas output fell by 17.0 bcfd from Jan. 8-16 to a 12-month low of 90.6 bcfd on Tuesday. That drop was still smaller than losses of 19.6 bcfd during Winter Storm Elliott in December 2022 and 20.4 bcfd during the February freeze in 2021.