Incremental Freeport Volumes Supportive as Natural Gas Futures Maintain Gains Early

Buoyed by the prospect of rising export demand, natural gas futures modestly extended their recent gains in early trading Friday. The March Nymex contract, set to expire Friday, was up 3.1 cents to $2.345/MMBtu at around 8:45 a.m. ET. April was up 1.4 cents to $2.446.

Based on recent estimates, “national LNG demand has sagged on a downturn at Cheniere’s Sabine Pass and Corpus Christi” facilities, according to EBW Analytics Group analyst Eli Rubin.

However, liquefied natural gas volumes flowing to the long-idled Freeport LNG terminal were seen climbing above 0.7 Bcf/d, setting new highs since the facility went offline last year, the analyst said.

“More broadly, the budding natural gas rally appears to be gathering technical momentum after gas prices briefly slumped...