Overall Weak Themes Remain for Henry Hub

U.S. natural gas remains largely flat on Friday, reversing some earlier losses. Rising domestic output, high amounts of gas in storage and lingering uncertainty about Freeports restart have pressured prices.

• US Natgas AUG 24 down -0.1% at 2.12$/mmbtu
• Some upside support has been provided by hotter weather outlooks in late July and early August, a likely boost for cooling demand.
• Freeport started pulling in small amounts of feedgas this week as it slowly returns to service. The 2.1-bcfd plant was on track to pull in about 0.8 bcfd of gas on Friday, up from 0.5 bcfd on Thursday after pulling in almost no gas from July 7-15.
• With prices down about 20% so far in July, the market is watching to see if drillers start reducing the amount of gas they produce.
• The number of US LNG export cargoes fell to 20 last week from 23 the previous week, according to the EIA as feedgas flows to US LNG export terminals also declined.
• US LNG export terminal feedgas flows are today up to 11.39bcf/d according to Bloomberg with Freeport supply up to 0.76bcf/d, equivalent to the operation of one of the three trains. Analysts say Freeport has cancelled between 7-10 cargoes as a result of delays with the number expected to grow, Reuters said.
• US domestic natural gas production was at 101.9bcf/d yesterday just below the average from the previous week of 102.2bcf/d.
• Domestic natural gas demand is at 75.7bcf/d today to hold just above the previous seasonal five-year average. The latest weather forecast is relatively unchanged on the day with below normal in central areas and Gulf Coast region and above normal in the west in the 6-10 day period.