Natural gas futures closed the book on 2020 with a bang after weather models flipped colder for the next couple of weeks and production dipped back below 90 Bcf/d. The February Nymex futures contract settled Thursday at $2.539, up 11.7 cents day/day. March climbed 10.4 cents to $2.526.

EIA storage Dec 25

Spot gas, which traded Thursday for delivery through Monday, was mostly lower on a lack of widespread cold in the near term. NGI’s Spot Gas National Avg. fell 8.5 cents to $2.440.

New Year’s Eve action in the futures market started off on solid footing, with the February Nymex contract opening about a penny higher and climbing about 6.0 cents or so early in the session, ahead of Thursday’s government storage inventory report. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) report proved to be...