Booming production numbers and the possibility of underwhelming December weather had natural gas prices reeling during the Nov. 16-21 period, with both regional forwards and Nymex futures posting sizable discounts.

In the face of record-level supply flooding the market, bulls seemed ready to throw in the towel on winter as fixed prices for December at benchmark Henry Hub plummeted 34.4 cents to exit the period at $2.851/MMBtu.

Perhaps tellingly, the entire winter strip finished the period below the psychological $3 mark, with January fixed prices at the national benchmark finishing at $2.997, NGI Forward Look data show.

[Want to visualize Henry Hub, Houston Ship Channel and Chicago Citygate prices? Check out NGI’s daily natural gas price snapshot now.]

Basis mark-ups at...