US natural gas futures declined on Friday amid expectations of a decline in LNG feedgas flows, as a major facility heads into scheduled maintenance.
The front-month Henry Hub contract and the continuous contract both fell 3.15% to $2.917 per million British thermal units. Futures were set to end the week down by 9.35%, according to Trading Economics.
Futures hit a six-week low after the Freeport LNG facility in Texas said that it would begin "major maintenance turnaround work" starting Friday, according to the Energy Buyer's Guide, which weighed on LNG Feedgas Flow estimates, along with overall natural gas demand.
LNG feedgas flows are estimated at 18.30 billion cubic feet for Friday, down significantly from the prior week, and below the 30-day moving average of 18.90 Bcf, according to the Bloomberg LNG Feedgas Model.
Besides this, the US Energy Information Administration released the weekly natural gas storage supplement, reporting 61 Bcf in net injection into storage for the week ended July 03. This was slightly above forecasts at 60 Bcf, along with the prior year figures at 53 Bcf and the five-year average for this period at 51 Bcf, according to data compiled by Investing.com.
US working gas inventories stood at 2,983 Bcf as of July 03, which was 15 Bcf, or 1% below the year-ago levels, but 185 Bcf, or 7% above the five-year average for this period.
Meanwhile, the weather outlook has turned more bearish, with parts of the Northeast now expected to see normal temperatures from July 17 through July 23, following weeks of above-normal heat across much of the country, according to the National Weather Service.