Weekly cash natural gas prices fell as scattered cold weather failed to generate enough widespread heating demand, while weather forecasts that added more heating degree days (HDD) toward the official start to winter lifted futures late in the week ending Dec. 8. 

NGI’s Weekly Spot Gas National Avg. for the Dec. 11-15 period fell 42.0 cents to $2.390. Losses were spread across all regions except West Texas, which saw its weekly average up 72.5 cents to $1.820.

The January Nymex futures contract settled at $2.491/MMBtu at the close of trading Friday, up 9.9 cents day/day but still below the prior week’s finish of $2.518.

It was a heavy lift for natural gas bulls fighting against light demand in what has been “one of the warmest Decembers of the past 50 years,”...