Frigid conditions forecast over the next week, coupled with recent estimates showing a weather-related dip in Lower 48 production, helped natural gas futures add to their recent gains in early trading Tuesday. After picking up 8.5 cents in Monday’s session, the February Nymex contract was up another 7.9 cents to $3.894/MMBtu at around 8:50 a.m. ET.

NGI Morning Natural Gas Price & Markets Coverage

Weather data offered up a mix of trends overnight, with the American model adding to expected heating demand and the European dataset paring some of its recent demand gains, according to NatGasWeather.

“It’s difficult to know how the natural gas markets will interpret overnight trends” given that the European model lost demand “but still held the strongest national demand so far this heating season for the coming seven...