U.S. natural gas futures dropped 9% to an 11-week low on June 21 on a bigger-than-expected storage build as the extended shutdown of the Freeport LNG export plant in Texas allows utilities to quickly rebuild low gas stockpiles.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said utilities added a surprise 74 Bcf of gas to storage during the week ended June 17.

That was more than the 65-Bcf build analysts forecast in a Reuters poll and compares with an increase of 49 Bcf in the same week last year and a five-year (2017-2021) average increase of 82 Bcf.

The Freeport shutdown on June 8 reduced the amount of U.S. gas available to the rest of the world, especially in Europe where most U.S. LNG has gone as countries there wean themselves off Russian energy after Moscow invaded Ukraine in February.

Analysts said leaving more gas in the United States, however, should give American utilities a chance to rebuild extremely low stockpiles quickly. Freeport, the second-biggest U.S. LNG export plant, consumes about 2 Bcf/d of gas, so a 90-day shutdown would make about 180 Bcf of additional gas available to the U.S. market.

“The full impacts of Freeport’s ... boost to storage, coupled with expectations for rising production through the second half of the year, could very well position 2022’s end-of-season storage peak well near that of the five-year average,” analysts at Gelber & Associates said in a note.

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Front-month gas futures for July delivery on the Nymex fell 61.9 cents, or 9.0%, to settle at $6.239 per MMBtu, their lowest level since April 6.

In what has already been a volatile year of trade, the June 23 price drop was only the biggest one-day decline since mid-June. So far in 2022, gas futures have lost over 10% in five sessions.

On the technical side, the front-month fell below its 100-day moving average—a key level of support—for the first time since mid-March, and the contract remained in oversold territory with a relative strength index (RSI) below 30 for a fourth straight day for the first time since September 2020.

Despite recent declines, U.S. gas futures are still up about 68% so far this year as much higher prices in Europe and Asia keep demand for U.S. LNG exports strong, especially since Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine stoked fears Moscow might cut gas supplies to Europe.

Gas was trading around $40 per MMBtu in Europe and $37 in Asia. Gas prices at the Title Transfer Facility (TTF) in the Netherlands, the European benchmark, were up 8% earlier in the day after Germany entered Phase 2 of its three-stage emergency gas plan due to reduced supply from Russia.

Russia kept pipeline exports to Europe low at 3.7 Bcf/d on June 22, the same as on June 21, on the three mainlines into Germany: North Stream 1 (Russia-Germany), Yamal (Russia-Belarus-Poland-Germany) and the Russia-Ukraine-Slovakia-Czech Republic-Germany route. That compares with an average of 11.6 Bcf/d in June 2021.

Data provider Refinitiv said the amount of gas flowing to U.S. LNG export plants has fallen from an average of 12.5 Bcf/d in May to 11.3 Bcf/d so far in June due to the Freeport outage. That compares with a monthly record of 12.9 Bcf/d in March. The seven big U.S. export plants can turn about 13.6 Bcf/d of gas into LNG.