NEW YORK, Feb 3, 2026, 10:14 EST — Regular session
- Henry Hub futures bounced back roughly 4% following Monday’s sharp decline
- Natural gas inventories hold steady as pipeline companies jump start the session
- Traders are focused on late-winter weather shifts ahead of Thursday’s U.S. storage report
U.S. natural gas futures clawed back some ground Tuesday morning, with March Henry Hub contracts rising 3.7% to $3.358 per million British thermal units (mmBtu). That came after Monday’s staggering 25.7% plunge—the steepest single-day fall since 1995, not counting rollover periods—triggered by warmer mid-February weather forecasts.
Natural gas stocks showed less volatility than the commodity itself. EQT shares edged up around 0.8%, and Antero Resources Corp ticked higher by about 0.7%. Pipeline companies took the lead: Williams climbed roughly 2.7%, Kinder Morgan Inc. gained 1.6%, and Oneok Inc. also rose about 2.7%. Cheniere Energy Inc. added close to 0.6%.
Winter weather continues to shape demand, pushing power markets around. PJM Interconnection expects generation outages to jump to 25.72 gigawatts (GW) on Tuesday, up from 19.96 GW on Monday, as the cold snap stretches on. Meanwhile, Eastern gas prices in Pennsylvania dropped sharply to $3.79 per mmBtu from $5.69. PJM West power prices in Pennsylvania and Maryland also fell, sliding to $113 per megawatt hour (MWh) from $196.
Last week’s freeze disrupted liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments. U.S. LNG exports dropped to 11.3 million metric tonnes in January from a December peak of 11.5 million, according to preliminary LSEG data. The cold snap forced some plants offline and pushed feedgas—the pipeline gas fed into export terminals—to a one-year low on Jan. 26. Freeport LNG was partially offline, while Kinder Morgan’s Elba Island terminal in Georgia resorted to importing LNG from Trinidad and Tobago after halting feedgas during the freeze. Europe accounted for 9.46 million tonnes, or 83%, of U.S. exports last month.
Long-term deals outside the U.S. kept pace even as spot markets swung wildly. On Tuesday, QatarEnergy inked a 27-year contract to deliver 3 million tonnes of LNG annually to Japan’s Jera starting in 2028. The announcement came at the LNG2026 conference in Doha. Jera highlighted that the supply will back gas-fired power and growing electricity needs from new data centers and semiconductor factories.
At the meeting, executives painted the long-term outlook as driven by demand. QatarEnergy CEO Saad al-Kaabi warned, “beyond 2030 you will have a shortage.” Shell CEO Wael Sawan noted that “the world is adding the energy demand of Switzerland every single month,” highlighting LNG demand could jump to 650–700 million metric tons by 2040, up from around 415 million today. Reuters
Still, the short-term play hinges on the weather, and that’s a double-edged sword. If forecasts shift warmer again, expect sellers to jump back in—particularly as production steadies and freeze-offs ease.
On deck is Thursday’s U.S. Energy Information Administration natural gas storage report, set for 10:30 a.m. Eastern on Feb. 5. Traders see it as a routine gauge of market health. Updates to weather models and LNG feedgas flows will also draw close attention.
