The NYMEX March natural gas futures contract continued to trade in negative territory midday Wednesday and as of 12:33 p.m. EST (1733 GMT) was at $2.409/MMBtu, 9.4 cents below Tuesday's $2.503/MMBtu close.
The previous week's short-covering rally proved to be short-lived, Barclays Capital analysts wrote.
"Without a slew of producer announcements of drilling cuts, it would be hard to find any support for gas prices in the short term. Instead, ExxonMobil actually stepped out and said that it has no intention to curtail its dry gas drilling," Barclays analysts added.
In the meantime, "weather forecasts continue to provide little support for gas prices, with above to well-above normal temperatures expected in the next five days, followed by normal to above-normal temperatures in the 6-10 day forecast," TFS Energy Futures analysts said.
"The 11-15 day forecast has shifted to above to well-above normal temperatures," they added.
The contract has traded electronically between $2.355/MMBtu and $2.471/MMBtu.
