Natural gas futures spiked in early trading Monday after the largest U.S. natural gas producer announced a “strategic production curtailment” to help the market negotiate a supply glut driven by mild weather.

NGI Morning Natural Gas Price & Markets Coverage

The April Nymex contract was up 13.5 cents to $1.970/MMBtu as of 8:27 a.m. ET. May was up 12.8 cents to $2.103.

Appalachian Basin natural gas producing giant EQT Corp. early Monday said it was curtailing around 1 Bcf/d of production “in response to the current low natural gas price environment resulting from warm winter weather and consequent elevated storage inventories.”

The curtailments began in late February, according to a press release circulated at 5 a.m. ET.

Management expects to continue limiting production through March and to curtail around 30-40...