SoCal Citygate Weekly Natural Gas Price Snapshot

Natural gas prices at key hubs near the Gulf Coast traded mostly sideways during the first day of bidweek trading on Tuesday. Production moved lower and storage surpluses narrowed, but forecasts pointed to a powerful hurricane impacting the region this week.

October Nymex natural gas futures fluctuated between gains and losses Tuesday before turning lower as profit taking, hurricane risks and middling demand choked off some of the rocket fuel powering the previous three days’ nearly 33.0-cent run higher.

October Nymex natural gas futures floated from gains to losses during Tuesday afternoon trading. The market was caught between prospects of significant demand destruction and production shut-ins as Tropical Storm Helene formed over the Caribbean. Cash prices were mixed by varied demand.

Nearly a dozen market participants announced a series of deals at Gastech 2024 in Houston last week, landing more than 5 million metric tons/year (mmty) of global LNG export and import capacity as supplies are forecast to grow through the end of the decade.

The October natural gas futures contract flew higher on Monday, building on the prior week’s rally and remaining comfortably above a key technical threshold. It settled at $2.613/MMBtu, up 17.9 cents day/day. This followed back-to-back gains to close out last week.