Lighter shoulder season demand and soft export data overshadowed bullish production estimates and weighed down natural gas futures to kick off trading this week.

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At A Glance:

  • Weak near-term demand
  • Production remains softer
  • NGI models injection of 55 Bcf

The May Nymex gas futures contract on Monday settled at $1.691/MMBtu, down 7.9 cents day/day.

Cash prices hovered near seasonal lows, but NGI’s Spot Gas National Avg. inched ahead 1.5 cents on the day to 96.0 cents. This followed a 23.0 cent-drop on Friday.

Wood Mackenzie on Monday estimated production at 98.6 Bcf/d, down nearly 2 Bcf/d from the 30-day average and off more than 8 Bcf/d from record highs reached early this year. Major producers have scaled back in recent weeks to address an oversupplied market.

A...