Natural gas futures nudged higher early Monday as near-term heating demand and soft springtime production offered support for prices.

NGI Morning Natural Gas Price & Markets Coverage

The May Nymex contract was up 2.1 cents to $1.773/MMBtu at around 8:45 a.m. ET. June was up 2.5 cents to $2.013.

Updated estimates Monday showed domestic production remaining steady at sub-100 Bcf/d levels. 

Bloomberg data showed daily dry gas production totaling 98.4 Bcf/d for Monday, down 0.7 Bcf/d day/day. Wood Mackenzie estimates similarly showed output at 98.2 Bcf/d, off slightly versus production of around 99.0 Bcf/d over the weekend.

On the other hand, LNG feed gas volumes also remained relatively weak in the latest samples. Wood Mackenzie estimates put flows to U.S. liquefied natural gas terminals at 10.4 Bcf/d for Monday, in line...