August natural gas futures were narrowing losses through midday trading Wednesday, supported by EQT Corp. management saying they would continue to “tactically” curtail output into the fall.
Here’s the latest:
- August Nymex natural gas futures down 7.2 cents to $2.115/MMBtu as of 2:24 p.m. ET
EQT CFO Jeremy Knop said on an earnings call Wednesday, “We continue to tactically curtail production, including over the past weeks, and expect to continue this tactical curtailment program during the upcoming fall shoulder season.”
Management’s assumption was “the majority of those curtailments probably take place in September and October,” Knop said.
On current Lower 48 production, “I think this number hovering around 102 Bcf is a healthy number,” Knop said.
Knop’s comments cleared up some of the uncertainty about the producer’s plans after its earnings release Tuesday “implied they would not cut production despite weak prices,” according to Mizuho Securities USA LLC’s Robert Yawger, director for Energy Futures.
- Feed gas deliveries to Freeport LNG Development LP terminal in Texas cut in half
Gulf South Pipeline Co. LLC said scheduled deliveries to the Freeport facility via its Stratton Ridge location would be reduced to zero for Wednesday after it failed to take deliveries. Wood Mackenzie revised Freeport flows down by around 0.7 Bcf/d to about 0.6 Bcf/d, supplied from two other intake points.
The drop could indicate the facility may have experienced another operational issue as it worked to restore capacity after former Hurricane Beryl.
Overall feed gas deliveries to U.S. liquefied natural gas export terminals were pacing at about 12.6 Bcf/d for Wednesday before Freeport’s revision lower, according to NGI’s U.S. LNG Export Flow Tracker.
- Cash prices averaging lower, with Henry Hub averaging down 8.5 cents at $2.030, according to NGI’s MidDay Price Alert
- Southeast Regional Avg. leading regional decliner, down 18.0 cents to $2.050
Weather model updates trended three cooling degrees lower and were little changed at midday, according NatGasWeather. Forecasts were “still holding a not-so-scary pattern the front five days but with an impressively hot overall U.S. pattern for the seven- to 15-day period.”
