On Friday, US natural gas futures increased by about 1%. Weather forecasts indicating cooler temperatures later in February helped prices recover after falling to a 9-month low the previous day. US March futures may decrease for the second week in the last three, by approximately 24%, despite having increased by about 8% last week.

The expected cooling is set to boost demand for heating in mid-February. However, weather forecasts currently predict warmer than usual weather to persist.

Analysts note that production is increasing as wells return to operation after freezing during the mid-January cold snap brought on by an Arctic cyclone. They believe that gas supplies to LNG terminals are likely to remain low until the Freeport LNG plant in Texas resumes full operation, which is expected to happen around mid or late February.

March futures on the NYMEX at 14:40 GMT were up 1.9 cents, or 0.9%, at $2.069 per million BTUs. On Thursday, the futures fell to their lowest closing level since mid-April 2023.

The futures have remained in a state of technical oversold for the fourth consecutive day.