Leticia Gonzales

The coronavirus has upended the global liquefied natural gas (LNG) market, driving up freight rate volatility as an increasing number of cargoes are floating throughout Asia while others are being diverted.

The momentum that weather models garnered over the last few days sputtered on Wednesday, with natural gas futures prices retreating a bit after warmer revisions to the long-range outlook. The March Nymex gas futures contract closed the session at $1.955, down 2.6 cents from Tuesday’s close. April was unchanged at $1.971.

A notably more frigid weather outlook developed over the holiday weekend, helping to send natural gas futures sharply higher in early trading Tuesday. The March Nymex contract was trading at $1.949/MMBtu at around 8:40 a.m. ET, up 11.2 cents from last Friday’s settle.

Weekend weather models achieved a feat that has remained elusive over the winter so far, turning massively colder over the extended holiday weekend and sending the natural gas futures surging to start the work week. The March Nymex gas futures contract jumped 14.4 cents to settle Tuesday at $1.981/MMBtu. April shot up 11.5 cents to $1.971.

Natural gas futures capped the week with a modest gain as the latest weather data gave bulls enough momentum to prevent another leg lower ahead of the long holiday weekend. The March Nymex gas futures contract climbed 1.1 cents to settle Friday at $1.837. April was unchanged at $1.856.

Despite some intraweek volatility driven in large part to a double-shot of winter storms hitting the United States, weekly spot gas prices ultimately shifted very little week/week. TheNGIWeekly Spot GasNational Avg.slipped just 2.0 cents to $1.750.

Natural gas bulls finally got a bit of supportive news Wednesday as weather models trended much chillier with a cold blast set to hit the United States next week. The more frigid outlook sent the March Nymex gas futures contract 5.6 cents higher day/day to settle at $1.844/MMBtu, near the high end of its trading range. April climbed 5.1 cents to $1.874.

Warm weather outlooks kept a firm grip on the front of the natural gas forward curve for the Feb. 6-11 period, while a projected softening in Lower 48 production growth provided a modest uplift to winter 2020-21 prices, according to NGI’s Forward Look.

Warm weather outlooks kept a firm grip on the front of the natural gas forward curve for the Feb. 6-11 period, while a projected softening in Lower 48 production growth provided a modest uplift to winter 2020-21 prices, according to NGI’s Forward Look.