As extreme heat in the West was expected to continue supporting prices at the front of the curve, natural gas futures rallied in early trading Tuesday. The September Nymex contract was up 9.3 cents to $2.432/MMBtu at around 8:40 a.m. ET.

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California has been hit with record heat and rolling blackouts that have coincided with spiking natural gas prices in the spot market, including SoCal Citygate prices that shot up above $13 for Tuesday delivery.

“Rolling blackouts in California Independent System Operator (CAISO) service territory were the result of extreme hot weather throughout California as well as unplanned short-term supply dips from multiple gas plants and from wind generation,” Genscape Inc. analyst Joseph Bernardi said in a note to clients. “…Gas demand in...