Departing from the traditional red and green associated with the Christmas holiday, natural gas futures flipped back and forth from being in the red and being in the black Friday. Traders weighed forecasts for warmer weather and another delay in the relaunch of a key LNG export facility against robust near-term demand and lower production. 

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At A Glance:

  • Futures gain 8.0 cents on Friday
  • Production sinks below 95 Bcf/d
  • Forecasts call for sharp warm-up

Ultimately, the January Nymex natural gas futures contract gained 8.0 cents day/day and settled at $5.079/MMBtu. February rose 5.2 cents to $4.980. The advance marked only the second gain of the week for the prompt month – both of them modest.

NGI’s Spot Gas National Avg. fell $1.265 to $15.315 on Friday after outsized gains...