North American natural gas prices were subdued this week despite a boost from lower production and some lingering cold weather.

On Thursday, the New York Mercantile Exchange contract for April settled at $1.683/MMBtu, down 1.6 cents on the day. As a comparison, NGI’s next-day Henry Hub traded Wednesday for Thursday delivery at $1.565, down a penny from Tuesday’s trade.

The big event of the week was the gathering of energy leaders at CERAWeek by S&P Global in Houston. The buzz was around the U.S. government’s pause on new LNG permits and how this might impact the robust U.S. and Mexico pipeline projects.

Speaking at the event, U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm called the pause a temporary step to better policymaking. “This study is like other studies we’ve...