Natural gas futures recovered Monday as weather shifted substantially colder, driving heating demand and offsetting festering concerns about the relaunch of a key export facility. The December Nymex gas futures contract settled at $5.933/MMBtu, up 5.4 cents day/day. January gained 3.6 cents to $6.299.

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At A Glance:

  • Forecasts call for enduring freeze
  • Export capacity remains uncertain
  • Analysts see another storage injection

NGI’s Spot Gas National Avg. jumped $1.415 to $6.340, with prices surging in the nation’s midsection and the East along with advancing cold.

The front month contract shed 36.0 cents to settle at $5.879 on Friday. This followed unsubstantiated rumors that the Freeport LNG facility in Texas, offline since June following a fire, would not reopen until 2023...