** Shares of natural gas companies rise, tracking natgas futures NGA/

** U.S. natgas prices NGc1 up 6.6% at $3.90 per mln British thermal units (mmBtu), due to an increase in the amount of gas flowing to liquefied natural gas $(LNG)$ export plants and forecasts for colder weather in January, leading to higher heating demand than what was previously expected

** LNG firms - EQT Corp EQT.N up 1.6%, CNX Resources CNX.N up 1% and Energy Transfer ET.N up 1.9%

** ETFs United States Natural Gas Fund UNG.P rises 3.1% and ProShares Ultra Bloomberg Natural Gas BOIL.P up 4.1%

(Reporting by Pooja Menon in Bengaluru)

((Pooja.Menon@thomsonreuters.com;))