NEW YORK, December 31, 2025, 5:35 PM ET — After-hours
- U.S. natural gas futures settled down about 7% after the EIA reported a 38 billion cubic feet storage withdrawal, below forecasts.
- The United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG) fell about 6.7% in after-hours trading; EQT and Antero Resources also slipped, while Cheniere edged higher.
- Traders are watching early-January temperature models, LNG feedgas flows and the next weekly storage report timing after the holiday.
U.S. natural gas prices slid sharply on Wednesday after a smaller-than-expected storage withdrawal and warmer temperature forecasts pushed front-month futures to a two-month low. Natural gas-linked stocks were mixed in after-hours trading, led lower by the commodity-tracking United States Natural Gas Fund.
The move matters because winter demand is typically the market’s stress test. A light pull from underground storage suggests supply remains comfortable, which can quickly pressure prices and the share prices of gas-focused producers.
It also lands at a delicate moment for positioning. LNG — liquefied natural gas — exports have absorbed large volumes of U.S. output this year, so traders have treated weekly storage data and weather models as the main scorecard for whether demand is keeping up.
Front-month February Henry Hub futures — the contract closest to delivery — settled down 7.2% at $3.686 per mmBtu (million British thermal units), a standard gas pricing unit. The contract was still up a little more than 3% for the year, even after the late selloff.
The Energy Information Administration said companies withdrew 38 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of gas from storage in the week ended Dec. 26. That was below the roughly 50-Bcf withdrawal expected in a Reuters poll and far under the five-year average draw of 120 Bcf for the week, the report showed.
Meteorologists called for above-normal temperatures across the United States through Jan. 14, data in the report showed. Heating degree days — a measure of how much energy is needed to warm buildings — fell to 413 on Wednesday from 439 on Tuesday, pointing to weaker heating demand.
LSEG projected average gas demand in the Lower 48 states, including exports, would ease to 134.5 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) next week from 137.8 bcfd this week. “Bcfd” is an industry shorthand for daily flow volumes. BOE Report
On the supply side, LSEG said average Lower 48 output climbed to 110.1 bcfd in December, a monthly record that underscored how quickly domestic production has recovered. Higher output tends to cap rallies unless demand rises fast enough to absorb it.
LNG export demand remained the main counterweight. LSEG said average feedgas flows — natural gas delivered to LNG terminals to be chilled and exported — rose to 18.5 bcfd so far in December, and daily feedgas was set to hit 19.1 bcfd on Wednesday, driven largely by higher flows to the Plaquemines plants in Louisiana.
“Given this weather and the drawdown number, there’s really not a whole lot of room for the natural gas prices to go up,” said Zhen Zhu, a managing consultant at C.H. Guernsey and Company in Oklahoma City. BOE Report
In after-hours stock trading, UNG was down about 6.7% at $12.26. EQT fell about 1.9% to $53.60 and Antero Resources slipped about 1.8% to $34.46, while LNG exporter Cheniere Energy rose about 0.5% to $194.39.
Overseas, Dutch and British wholesale gas prices were little changed, helped by strong wind generation that reduced the need for gas-fired power. The front-month Dutch benchmark was on track to end 2025 around 40% lower than where it started, the report said.
U.S. equity markets are closed on Thursday for New Year’s Day and reopen on Friday, Jan. 2, the NYSE calendar shows. For gas, traders will keep recalibrating around updated temperature forecasts and LNG feedgas flows, with the EIA’s storage release schedule returning to its usual Thursday-morning cadence after this week’s holiday shift.
