Absent much convincing cold in the forecast – and near-record production – natural gas prices were trending lower for January baseload delivery, according to NGI’s Bidweek Alert (BWA).

Notably, prices fell hardest in the West, a sharp turnaround from this time last year when Winter Storm Elliott slammed large swaths of the country ahead of Christmas and sent prices to record levels in the region.

Among the highest prices in the country for January, the PG&E Citygate was trading around $4.250/MMBtu on day one of the January bidweek trading period. However, this compares to an average of $6.355 last month and an average $49.520 for January 2023 bidweek.

At the SoCal Citygate, January bidweek was trading around $4.10 on day one of trading, down from an average of $6.525...