Mild winter temperatures across much of the central and eastern United States reduced heating demand and dropped domestic natural gas consumption to the lowest levels in years. 

Following a cold start to winter last December, benign weather prevailed over the first two months of this year. As a result, in January, U.S. natural gas consumption averaged 106.8 Bcf/d, the lowest January volume since 2017, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in its latest Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO). February consumption averaged 104.5 Bcf/d, the weakest February volume since 2018, EIA said.  

U.S. natural gas consumption in January was 8% less than year-earlier levels and 3% lower than the five-year average (2018–22) for January. February natural gas consumption was 4% less than...