Cooler spring temperatures provided modest support to spot natural gas prices across most of the United States during the April 24-27 trading period, which covered gas deliveries through April 30. However, warmer temperatures arriving on the West Coast led to sharp price declines there, leaving NGI’s Weekly Spot Gas National Avg. off a half-cent to $2.165/MMBtu.

Natural gas futures struggled to find support early in the week, with the May Nymex contract expiring 19.0 cents lower at $2.117 amid a continuation in loose supply/demand balances. June futures, however, managed to churn out a modest gain during the first two days at the front of the Nymex curve, with some short-covering possibly in play. The June Nymex contract settled Friday at $2.410, 5.5 cents higher than...