Eschewing the typical shoulder-season themes characteristic of more moderate weather-driven demand, natural gas forwards rallied sharply during the March 31-April 6 trading period as signs of stubbornly stagnating production levels stoked supply adequacy fears.

The majority of Lower 48 hubs posted fixed price gains of around 40-60 cents week/week for the May contract, with benchmark Henry Hub adding 42.4 cents to finish at $6.030/MMBtu, NGI’s Forward Look data show.

Basis moves pointed to widespread buying interest, as numerous locations trading at negative differentials closed the gap on Henry by a dime or more during the March 31-April 6 period.

[Want to visualize Henry Hub, Houston Ship Channel and Chicago Citygate prices? Check out NGI’s daily natural gas price snapshot...