gasoline prices are displayed at an exxon gas station behind american flag in edgewater new jersey us june 14 2022 reutersmike segarfile photo july 12 reuters  us natural gas futures fell about 4 on tuesday as the gas market followed an 8 drop in oil prices that gas price decline came even though daily gas output dropped and amid forecasts for hotter weather and more demand over the next two weeks than previously expected the heat has already boosted power demand in several parts of the country to record levels including in texas and caused generators to burn more gas to produce electricity to keep air conditioners humming read more also weighing on gas prices traders noted the ongoing outage at freeport lngs liquefied natural gas lng export plant in texas has left more gas in the united states for utilities to refill low stockpiles for the winter freeport the secondbiggest us lng export plant was consuming about 2 billion cubic feet per day bcfd of gas before it shut on june 8 freeport lng has said the facility could return by october some analysts however think the plant could remain shut for a longer period read more after weeks of rising volatility frontmonth gas futures for august delivery fell 263 cents or 41 to settle at 6163 per million british thermal units mmbtu earlier in the session gas futures were up almost 6 gas market closetoclose volatility over the past 30 days rose to its highest since march volatility hit a record high in february oil futures were down on a stronger us dollar and a weaker demand outlook the premium of gas futures for august over september rose to a record high for a third day in a row so far this year the frontmonth is up about 66 as much higher prices in europe and asia keep demand for us lng exports strong especially since russias feb 24 invasion of ukraine stoked fears moscow would cut gas supplies to europe gas was trading around 51 per mmbtu in europe and 39 in asia  russian gas exports on the three main lines into germany  nord stream 1 russiagermany yamal russiabelaruspolandgermany and the russiaukraineslovakiaczech republicgermany route dropped from an average of 37 bcfd since midjune to just 16 bcfd on monday with the shutdown of nord stream for maintenance that is down from around 65 bcfd in early june and an average of 94 bcfd in july 2021 the group operating nord stream said the pipe should return around july 21 analysts however the outage could last longer us futures lag far behind global prices because the united states is the worlds top producer with all the gas it needs for domestic use while capacity constraints limit lng exports data provider refinitiv said average gas output in the us lower 48 states has risen to 961 bcfd so far in july from 953 bcfd in june that compares with a monthly record high of 961 bcfd in december 2021 on a daily basis however us output was on track to drop by 32 bcfd to nearly a 11week preliminary low of 933 bcfd on tuesday that would be the biggest daily decline since output plunged by a record 57 bcfd on one day during the 2021 february freeze preliminary data is often revised later in the day with hotter weather coming refinitiv projected average us gas demand including exports would rise from 980 bcfd this week to 989 bcfd next week those forecasts were higher than refinitivs outlook on monday the average amount of gas flowing to us lng export plants has slid to 111 bcfd so far in july from 112 bcfd in june that was down from 125 bcfd in may and a monthly record of 129 bcfd in march due to the freeport outage the seven big us export plants can turn about 138 bcfd of gas into lng reporting by scott disavino editing by paul simao bernadette baum and nick zieminski