U.S. natural gas futures were up by around 3% on Friday, thereby rebounding from a one-month low during the previous session. This comes after forecasts confirmed that weather is due to remain colder than has been expected historically for the next two weeks.
Front-month gas futures for April delivery were up 6.2 cents, or 2.9%, to $2.216 per million British thermal units (mmBtu). This contract remains 5% lower for the week, marking its third weekly loss in a row since early February. On February 21, frotn-month gas futures for April delivery closed at a 29-month low of $2.073 mmBtu.
Friday’s recovery coincides with expectations that the gas flow to liquified natural gas (LNG) export plants would hit a record high following the reopening of the Freeport LNG plant in Texas following an eight-month halt in operations.
Refinitiv data showed that Freeport LNG’s export plant was on track to pull in about 1.6 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) of gas on Friday; a rise from the 1.5 bcfd on Thursday. Freeport warned, however, that gas flows may rise and fall at a turbulent pace as the plant seeks to restore itself to full service following its extended suspension of activities.