COM - Natural gas prices skyrocket as U.S. freeze batters production

Natural gas (NG1:COM) leads an across-the-board surge in energy prices, with March nat gas futures +6.3% to $3.096/MMBtu, while March gasoline +4.1% to $1.7623/gal and March heating oil +2.3% to $1.8127/gal.The surge in prices comes as the Southwest Power Pool group of utilities covering 14 states ordered utilities to start rolling blackouts to cope with the winter storm pounding the central U.S. from the Ohio Valley to the Gulf Coast.The Electric Reliability Council of Texas estimated last night that 2M people were without power.Natural gas production from the Lower 48 states fell to a three-year low 75.2B cf on Monday before recovering slightly on Tuesday, according to BloombergNEF, as the extreme cold has frozen liquids in pipelines, disrupting wells and gas processing plants.ETFs: [[UNG]], [[XLU]], [[UTG]], [[UGAZF]], [[DGAZ]], [[VPU]], [[BOIL]], [[BUI]], [[GUT]], [[FCG]]Natural gas-focused equities are sharply higher pre-market, including [[CNX]] +6.4%, [[RRC]] +5.8%, [[AR]] +5.5%, [[SWN]] +5.5%, [[EQT]] +4.6%,

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Natural gas prices skyrocket as U.S. freeze batters production