Natural gas futures advanced for a second straight day on Wednesday as production dipped and all indications pointed to continued strong demand for U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG).

The June Nymex contract settled at $2.969/MMBtu, up 1.4 cents day/day. July rose 1.9 cents to $3.018.

NGI’s Spot Gas National Avg., however, declined 2.0 cents to $2.705 amid waning weather-driven demand.

While always subject to revisions, production estimates at the start of trading Wednesday hovered around 89 Bcf, roughly 1 Bcf below recent averages and well below pre-pandemic levels. At the same time, LNG feed gas volumes hung near 11 Bcf, far above year-earlier levels. Both Asian and European demand for U.S. exports of the super-chilled fuel is expected to hold strong through the summer...