Natural gas prices are falling back as production appears to be edging higher. Natural gas for February delivery is down 11.4 cents, or 3.8%, at $2.867 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The front-month contract hasn’t had back-to-back sessions of gains or losses in more than a week. The more actively traded March contract is down 10.4 cents, or 3.5%, at $2.831/mmBtu. Options expired at Tuesday’s close and the February contract expires Wednesday at close. “There is ample … gas in inventory to meet the demand of the remaining winter season even it is colder than normal,” Dominick Chirichella, analyst at the Energy Management Institute, said in a note to clients. Half of U.S. homes use natural gas for heat, making winter cold typically the biggest driver for demand. But prices have plummeted 36% since November because record production has been […]