
June Nymex natural gas (NGM24) on Friday closed up by +0.107 (+5.26%).
June nat-gas prices Friday climbed to a 3-month nearest-futures high and settled sharply higher. Gas prices surged Friday after Cheniere Energy said it doesn't expect prolonged outages at its LNG plants this summer, which should boost US LNG exports and help tighten up the oversupplied US nat-gas market. Gains in nat-gas prices accelerated Friday afternoon after Baker Hughes reported that the number of active US nat-gas drilling rigs in the week ending May 3 fell by -3 rigs to a 2-1/2 year low, which signals a reduction in US nat-gas production in the near term.