Natural gas futures floundered at first on Monday, hindered by autumn-like weather. As the session wore on, though, traders shifted attention to production that remains below recent highs as well as predictions for another lean storage increase.

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Coming off a 6.4-cent loss in Friday’s session, the October Nymex gas futures contract settled at $2.728/MMBtu on Monday, up 8.4 cents day/day. November gained 6.9 cents to $3.001.

NGI’s Spot Gas National Avg. gained 5.0 cents to $2.320. This followed a 15.5-cent drop on Friday.

Production hovered just above 100 Bcf/d on Monday, according to Bloomberg, but it was off about 2 Bcf/d from September highs because of a spate of recent maintenance events in the Permian Basin.

Moreover, near-term weather remained favorable for cooling...