With a brief cold snap penetrating deep into Texas this week, natural gas spot prices were mixed as demand increased as heating loads rose in key markets. NGI’s Weekly Spot Gas National Avg. climbed 11.5 cents from Jan. 9-13 to $5.575/MMBtu.

Nymex natural gas futures, meanwhile, failed to break out of the sub-$4 range it fell into earlier this month. The February contract settled Friday at $3.419, off 27.6 cents on the day and down nearly 50 cents from the start of the week.

In a market where LNG news can sometimes dominate headlines, weather maintained its grip on prices this week. A parade of wet weather systems continued to move across the West, taking aim at California and causing flooding and otherwise chaos despite otherwise moderate temperatures.

AccuWeather said the...