U.S. natural gas futures surged 10% on Monday, reaching a two-week high. This comes after a higher-than-expected demand for LNG exports for the week was forecast. This rise in demand is largely attributed to the return of Berkshire Hathaway Energy’s Cove Point liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plant in Maryland.
Additionally, the market was also awaiting the return of Freeport LNG’s 2.1-billion-cubic-feet-per-day (bcfd) export plant in Texas, which Freeport now expects to return to operation at least partially in mid to early November. The facility was previously shutdown on June 8 following a pipeline explosion.
Refinitiv data revealed that four vessels are already lined up at Freeport to pick up LNG deliveries. While Prism Brilliance and Prism Diversity are already docked and waiting for their shipments, Prism Courage is expected to arrive on November 1 while Grace Freesia has an expected arrival of 27 November.
Front-month gas futures gained 56.8 cents on Monday morning to $6.252 per million British thermal units; the contract’s biggest close since October 14. In addition, this 10% rise is the contract’s highest close since mid-July.