A drop in liquefied natural gas (LNG) demand kept the pressure on gas futures near the front of the curve in early trading Monday. 

AM markets

The October Nymex contract was down 7.4 cents to $1.974/MMBtu at around 8:40 a.m. ET.

The start of annual fall maintenance at the Dominion Energy Cove Point LNG terminal has cut more than 700 MMcf/d of feed gas deliveries to the facility, according to Genscape Inc. Analyst Allison Hurley said in a note to clients early Monday that the Cove Point facility underwent fall outages lasting 24 days in 2019 and 21 days in 2018.

“Implied feed gas deliveries to Cove Point LNG for the last 14 days have been stable, averaging 716 MMcf/d,” Hurley said. “Feed gas has plummeted to zero for today” coinciding with the start of maintenance.

Genscape as...