North American Natural Gas Market Seen Oversupplied as Cenagas Begins Contract Renewals – Mexico Spotlight

U.S. natural gas futures for March delivery tested $2.00/MMBtu this week as the North American market continued to be flush with supplies.

On Thursday, the March New York Mercantile Exchange futures contract rallied 14.0 cents to settle at $2.314, adding to a 10.1-cent rally in the day-earlier period. The meager gains came after Freeport LNG was cleared to restart commercial operations, and as a brutal winter storm hammered the northwestern United States.

Still, much more is needed to spur natural gas bulls. Prices have dropped so low that some North American exploration and production companies are scaling back activity.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. CEO Nick Dell’Osso runs one of the largest U.S. natural gas producers. In an earnings call on Wednesday he said in addition to...