With the market anticipating a bump in export demand, natural gas futures held on to the previous session’s gains in early trading Friday.

NGI Morning Natural Gas Price & Markets Coverage

The April Nymex contract was up 0.7 cents to $1.748/MMBtu at around 8:30 a.m. ET.

Indications of an imminent return to service for Freeport LNG’s Train 3, offline since January, helped fuel an 8.3-cent rally for the front month Thursday. 

Still, overall liquefied natural gas feed gas demand volumes remained lower at 12.5 Bcf/d for Friday, according to Wood Mackenzie estimates.

Prices also got a lift from a supportive 9 Bcf withdrawal in the latest U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) data. The print came in tighter versus estimates, though the Lower 48 surplus to the five-year average continued to climb, reaching 629 Bcf as...