** Shares of U.S. natural gas companies gain, tracking a rise in natgas futures NGA/

** U.S. natgas futures NGc1 up ~5% at $4.55 per million British thermal unit

** Natgas prices rise as traders bet on another round of cold weather in December and firmer power demand, even as temperatures are expected to moderate next week

** Shares of natgas companies up: CNX Resources CNX.N gains 1.6%, EQT Corp EQT.N rises 1.4%, NextDecade NEXT.O adds 2.6%

** Cheniere Energy LNG.N and Sempra SRE.N rise marginally

** ETFs rise: United States Natural Gas Fund UNG.P up 4.3% and ProShares Ultra Bloomberg Natural Gas BOIL.P gains ~7%

(Reporting by Pooja Menon in Bengaluru)

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