Natural gas futures were surging in early-morning trading Friday as the market reacted to reports of volumes being shut in at a Columbia Gulf compressor station in Mississippi following a lightning strike.

NGI Morning Natural Gas Price & Markets Coverage

After trading around $2.300/MMBtu as of 8 a.m. ET, the June contract quickly shot up to above $2.500 shortly after 8:30 a.m. ET. The front month was up 9.4 cents to $2.449 as of around 8:45 a.m. ET.

Real-time discussions on energy chat platform Enelyst pointed to breaking news of a major fire on part of the Columbia Gulf system in Mississippi as the catalyst for sudden buying pressure in natural gas futures.

On its electronic bulletin board, Columbia Gulf said it had reduced to zero all volumes through its Corinth Compressor Station in Mississippi because of a fire...