Futures Settle: Natural Gas Rises as Middle East Strikes Ignite Global LNG Risk

Natural Gas Intelligence · last updated March 18, 2026 – 12:07 PM

April Nymex natural gas futures rebounded Wednesday after testing a two-week low, drawing support from a global energy rally sparked by an Israeli and U.S.-led strike on Iran’s South Pars gas field and subsequent retaliatory attacks.

NGI estimates a 42 Bcf storage build for the week ending March 13, marking a shift toward early-season injections and coming in well above both last year’s 1 Bcf build and the five-year average withdrawal of 29 Bcf.

At A Glance:

Geopolitical risks lift global gas, oil prices
U.S. LNG outages cap domestic upside
Storage seen flipping to surplus

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