(Updates with details from EIA report)

Dec 27 (Reuters) - U.S. natural gas futures fell on Friday as a weekly federal report showed a slightly smaller-than-expected storage withdrawal, and as traders booked some profits after prices rose as much as 3% earlier in the session on increasing amounts of gas flowing to liquefied natural gas export plants.

Front-month gas futures for January delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell 3 cents, or 0.8%, to $3.69 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) as of 11:00 a.m. EST (1600 GMT).

The contract is down about 1.8% so far this week after prices hit $4.01/mmBtu level on Thursday, its highest since Jan 2023.

"We've definitely seen some pullback because of the inventories, we came in -93 billion cubic feet...I think because of the holiday, the market took some profits after the report. The January contract is also probably seeing rollover pressure because January's going off the board here pretty quickly and we have an expiration coming up on that contract," said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Price Futures Group.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration $(EIA)$ showed utilities pulled a smaller-than-usual 93 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas out of storage during the week ended Dec. 20.

That was less than the 98-bcf withdrawal analysts forecasted in a Reuters poll and compares with a decrease of 87 bcf during the same week last year and a five-year average draw of 127 bcf for this time of year.

Financial firm LSEG estimated 399 heating degree days over the next two weeks, compared with 393 estimated on Thursday.

It also forecast average gas demand in the Lower 48, including exports, jumping to 141.5 bcfd next week from 119.1 bcfd this week.

The amount of gas flowing to the eight big U.S. LNG export plants rose to an average of 14.8 bcfd so far in December from 13.6 bcfd in November.

U.S. liquefied natural gas $(LNG)$ company Venture Global LNG's tanker Venture Bayou departed the Plaquemines export plant in Louisiana for Germany, carrying the first LNG cargo produced at the facility, the company said on Thursday.

LSEG said average gas output in the Lower 48 U.S. states rose to 103.1 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) so far in December from 101.5 bcfd in November. That compares with a record 105.3 bcfd in December 2023.

Dutch and British wholesale gas prices rose, supported by forecasts of cold weather in early January and fading hopes for a new deal to transit Russian gas through Ukraine. The benchmark front-month contract at the Dutch TTF hub was trading at $14.55 per mmBtu.

Week ended Week ended Year ago Five-year

Dec 27 Dec 20 Dec 20 average

Forecast Actual Dec 20

U.S. weekly natgas storage change (bcf): -87 -127

-122 -93

U.S. total natgas in storage (bcf): 3,515 3,363

3,407 3,529

U.S. total storage versus 5-year average

4.5% 4.9%

Global Gas Benchmark Futures ($ per mmBtu) Current Day Prior Day This Month Prior Year Five-Year

Last Year Average Average

2023 (2018-2022)

Henry Hub 3.85 3.95 2.54 2.66 3.60

Title Transfer Facility (TTF) 14.55 14.08 11.55 13.04 14.39

Japan Korea Marker (JKM) - 13.97 13.97 14.03 14.39 14.31

LSEG Heating $(HDD.UK)$, Cooling $(CDD.AU)$ and Total (TDD) Degree Days

Two-Week Total Forecast Current Day Prior Day Prior Year 10-Year 30-Year

Norm Norm

U.S. GFS HDDs 399 393 374 427 432

U.S. GFS CDDs 2 2 1 4 3

U.S. GFS TDDs 401 395 375 431 435

LSEG U.S. Weekly GFS Supply and Demand Forecasts

Prior Week Current Next Week This Week Five-Year

Week Last Year (2019-2023)

Average For

Month

U.S. Supply (bcfd)

U.S. Lower 48 Dry Production 103.1 103.1 102.2 105.6 97.8

U.S. Imports from Canada 10.4 9.4 10.2 N/A 8.7

U.S. LNG Imports 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.2

Total U.S. Supply 113.5 112.6 112.3 N/A 106.7

U.S. Demand (bcfd)

U.S. Exports to Canada 3.5 3.6 3.6 N/A 3.4

U.S. Exports to Mexico 5.6 5.6 5.7 N/A 5.4

U.S. LNG Exports 14.3 14.3 14.6 14.7 10.8

U.S. Commercial 16.4 13.4 18.7 13.8 14.3

U.S. Residential 27.2 21.4 31.6 22.0 23.4

U.S. Power Plant 32.0 28.8 32.8 35.1 30.3

U.S. Industrial 25.3 24.3 6.3 24.7 25.1

U.S. Plant Fuel 5.1 5.1 5.0 5.1 5.2

U.S. Pipe Distribution 2.9 2.5 3.1 2.8 3.7

U.S. Vehicle Fuel 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1

Total U.S. Consumption 109.1 95.6 117.6 103.6 102.1

Total U.S. Demand 132.5 119.1 141.5 N/A 121.7

N/A is Not Available

U.S. Northwest River Forecast Center (NWRFC) at The Dalles Dam 2025 2025 2024 2003 2022

Current Day Prior Day % of Normal % of Normal % of Normal

% of Normal % of Normal Actual Actual Actual

Forecast Forecast

Apr-Sep 93 94 74 83 107

Jan-Jul 92 93 76 77 102

Oct-Sep 93 94 77 76 103

U.S. weekly power generation percent by fuel - EIA

Week ended Week ended 2023 2022 2021

Dec 27 Dec 20

Wind 9 13 10 11 10

Solar 3 3 4 3 3

Hydro 6 6 6 6 7

Other 1 1 2 2 2

Petroleum 0 0 0 0 0

Natural Gas 39 39 41 38 37

Coal 20 17 17 21 23

Nuclear 22 21 19 19 20

SNL U.S. Natural Gas Next-Day Prices ($ per mmBtu)

Hub Current Day Prior Day

Henry Hub 2.96

Transco Z6 New York 2.93

PG&E Citygate 2.75

Eastern Gas (old Dominion South) 2.69

Chicago Citygate 2.63

Algonquin Citygate 6.75

SoCal Citygate 2.93

Waha Hub 1.13

AECO 1.73

SNL U.S. Power Next-Day Prices ($ per megawatt-hour)

Hub Current Day Prior Day

New England

PJM West

Ercot North

Mid C

Palo Verde

SP-15

(Reporting by Anmol Choubey and Anjana Anil in Bengaluru; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

((anmol.choubey@thomsonreuters.com;))

((For gas data on the LSEG terminal type ENERGY in the search bar and then go to the GAS drop down and the NORTH AMERICA drop down. For Interactive Map, type 'Interactive Map' in the box at upper left of the LSEG terminal For graphics on Baker Hughes rig counts, see: For next-day SNL U.S. gas prices, see: For next-day SNL U.S. power prices, see: For U.S. natgas price and storage polls, see: For U.S. nuclear power outages, see: For U.S. Northwest hydro power report, see: For U.S./Canada natural gas rig count vs Henry Hub futures price, see: For the U.S. natural gas speed guide, see: For the U.S. power speed guide, see: To determine CFTC managed money net position add (NYMEX Henry Hub options and futures combined ) plus (ICE Henry Hub options and futures combined divided by four) plus (NYMEX Henry Hub swaps options and futures combined divided by four) plus (NYMEX Henry Hub penultimate gas swaps divided by four) NYMEX Henry Hub options and futures combined NYMEX Henry Hub futures only ICE Henry Hub options and futures combined NYMEX Henry Hub swaps options and futures combined NYMEX Henry Hub Penultimate gas swaps ))