Aside from a brief Arctic chill that temporarily sent heating demand soaring in mid-January, weather this winter has largely disappointed natural gas price bulls. Near-record production that kept supply well above average levels compounded matters.

The March natural gas futures contract on Tuesday settled at $2.009/MMBtu, down 7.3 cents on the day. The prompt month ticked below the $2 level in trading Wednesday. Futures prices are trading this week at roughly 20% below the value of a year earlier.

Physical markets also are under pressure. For example, NGI’s February Bidweek National Avg. advanced 14.0 cents month/month to $3.215/MMBtu. But that was well below the $5.430 average a year earlier.

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