Global Natural Gas Markets Hit Record Liquidity, Says ICE

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.

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.

Could Mexico become one of the largest LNG exporters in the world? In a decade’s time, it could be a reality, a top executive overseeing a planned export project on the west coast said last week.

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.

The soon-to-expire October Nymex natural gas futures contract reversed overnight gains, ticking a few cents lower early Tuesday on the heels of an impressive 17.9-cent advance Monday. Gains were motivated by the uncertain impact of a large storm system in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) and a tight market balance.

Prompt month natural gas futures marched higher Monday as risks to supply from a developing Gulf Coast storm added to pipeline issues and bullish weather revisions in tightening up market balances.