As Florida braced for a major hurricane to make landfall, with the storm expected to inflict potentially “catastrophic” damage to the state’s peninsula, natural gas futures retreated in early trading Wednesday.

NGI Morning Natural Gas Price & Markets Coverage

The expiring October Nymex contract was down 8.1 cents to $6.570/MMBtu at around 8:50 a.m. ET. November was off 3.2 cents to $6.728.

As of 8 a.m. ET, Hurricane Ian was bearing down on the west coast of Florida, threatening “catastrophic storm surge, winds and flooding in the Florida peninsula starting later today,” the National Hurricane Center warned.

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Ian was carrying maximum sustained winds of 155 mph. NHC predicted...