Natural gas futures floundered back into freefall Wednesday – the case of a majority of trading sessions early in the new year – as production climbed, benign weather persisted and the market braced for an anemic storage withdrawal.

After a 16.7-cent gain a day earlier, the February Nymex gas futures contract settled at $3.311/MMBtu on Wednesday, down 27.5 cents day/day. March shed 14.2 cents to $3.111.

NGI’s Spot Gas National Avg. slid 18.5 cents to $5.930. It had climbed 90.5 cents on Tuesday.

Reflecting momentum gathered in 2022 following lofty domestic demand and calls from Europe for U.S. exports, production topped 102 Bcf/d in Bloomberg’s Wednesday estimate, putting it in line with record levels.

However, because of seasonally mild weather across large swaths...