As forecasts over the weekend teased a colder Lower 48 pattern during the first week of December, natural gas futures rallied in early trading Monday. The December Nymex contract was up 14.1 cents to $6.444/MMBtu at around 8:45 a.m. ET. January was up 16.5 cents to $6.881.

NGI Morning Natural Gas Price & Markets Coverage

Freeport LNG on Friday announced that it expects to have around 2 Bcf/d of production capacity back online by January, later than its previous target for a November restart following a June explosion at the Texas export terminal. 

The announcement appeared to be in line with market expectations and “helped settle the growing rumor mill that had exerted growing influence over Nymex natural gas,” EBW Analytics Group analyst Eli Rubin told clients Monday. 

Market focus can now shift to weather as “the...