Natural gas futures were up sharply in early trading Friday as analysts continued to see global energy market anxieties amid the Ukraine crisis feeding into the domestic price outlook. The April Nymex contract was up 12.3 cents to $4.845/MMBtu at around 8:50 a.m. ET. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures were up $3.49 to $111.16/bbl.

NGI Morning Natural Gas Price & Markets Coverage

Observing no major day/day changes in weather or domestic fundamentals data, Bespoke Weather Services pointed to “escalations in the Russia/Ukraine conflict” and the associated increase in European prices as the likely driver of early gains for U.S. natural gas futures.

“This movement based on the situation in Europe is very likely to continue for a while, independent of anything shown in the data, which makes it a good time to simply stay...