Continued signs of easing production volumes in updated estimates Tuesday helped lift April natural gas futures in early trading. The April Nymex contract, set to take over as the new prompt month after the close, was up 5.0 cents to $1.794/MMBtu at around 8:45 a.m. ET. 

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The expiring March contract, meanwhile, was off fractionally on thin volume, down to $1.656.

Daily production estimates from Wood Mackenzie as of Tuesday continued to show a notable drop in recent samples. Tuesday’s estimate totaled roughly 101.7 Bcf/d, down around 2.3 Bcf/d since late last week, Wood Mackenzie analyst Laura Munder told clients.

“Yesterday’s production estimate was revised down around 180 MMcf/d due to a roughly 375 MMcf/d downward revision in West Virginia concentrated” at the Rover...