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

** U.S. natgas futures NGc1 up 12.2% at $5.47 per million British thermal units

** Natgas prices extend gains, soaring by a record 81% over the past three days to their highest since December 2022, on forecasts that extreme cold weather over the next two weeks will boost heating demand to near-record levels while at the same time cutting output by freezing oil and gas wells

** Energy Transfer ET.N up ~1%, NextDecade NEXT.O adds 1.8%, New Fortress Energy NFE.O gains 2.3% and Venture Global VG.N rises 6.3%

** VG shares jump after an arbitration tribunal ruled in favor of the company in a dispute with Spain's Repsol REP.MC

** Natgas ETFs also rise, with United States Natural Gas Fund UNG.P up 4.3% and ProShares Ultra Bloomberg Natural Gas BOIL.P up 8.6%

(Reporting by Pooja Menon in Bengaluru)

((Pooja.Menon@thomsonreuters.com))