Maintenance in Texas and frostier weather forecasts lifted weekly natural gas cash prices, while a jump in natural gas inventories sent futures lower for the week.

NGI’s Weekly Spot Gas National Avg. for the Nov. 13-17 period rose 86.0 cents to $2.870.

Heading in the opposite direction, the December Nymex futures contract settled at $2.960/MMBtu at the close of trading Friday, off 10.2 cents on the day and down 2.4% from the prior week’s finish.

That weekly decline for futures did not come without an effort by bulls, who mounted an early week rally on the back of forecasts turning much colder for late November.

Now with a healthy helping of heating demand expected alongside turkeys in the week ahead, forecasters said national natural gas demand could rise back to...