NEW YORK: US natural gas futures slid about 2% to a fresh two-week low on Wednesday on forecasts for less demand over the next two weeks than previously expected.

Also weighing on prices in recent weeks has been the reduced amount of gas flowing to liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plants due to ongoing outages at Freeport LNG’s plant in Texas.

Front-month gas futures for April delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange were down 3.4 cents, or 2.0%, to $1.680 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) at 8:42 a.m. EDT (1242 GMT), putting the contract on track for its lowest close since Feb. 27 for a fifth day in a row.

In total, the contract has lost about 15% over the past five days.

That price decline occurred despite a roughly 5% drop in US output over the past month after gas prices collapsed to a 3-1/2-year low in February.

Those low prices will boost US gas use to a record high in 2024, but cause gas production to drop for the first year since 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic destroyed demand for the fuel, according to the US Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) latest outlook.