Natural gas futures continued to build upward momentum early Tuesday as traders looked past upcoming hefty injections to the prospect of production declines and summer cooling demand that could ease oversupplied conditions.

NGI Morning Natural Gas Price & Markets Coverage

The June Nymex contract was up 4.7 cents to $2.422/MMBtu shortly after 8:40 a.m. ET.

The front month rallied 10.9 cents on Monday, building on a 7.6-cent gain late last week. The positive momentum comes as a steep drop-off in natural gas-directed rigs in the most recent Baker Hughes Co. rig data has signaled an eventual retreat in production that could tighten the market.

The June contract early Tuesday was testing a key technical resistance threshold pegged by ICAP Technical Analysis.

“Bulls were able to keep the rally going” on Monday, ICAP...