Natural gas futures have fluctuated on either side of $2.700 for months now, but another decline on Wednesday moved the goalposts a bit further out of reach. The September Nymex contract fell 8.3 cents to settle at $2.477/MMBtu.

Spot gas prices were mostly lower, but big gains out West ultimately sent NGI’s Spot Gas National Avg. down 2.5 cents to $2.460.

There were no major changes to fundamentals midweek, with production continuing to hover around 100 Bcf/d as major fluctuations largely depend on the level of maintenance activities taking place. A major unplanned maintenance event concluded on Tuesday, with the return of Permian Highway Pipeline (PHP) bringing 2.1 Bcf/d of takeaway capacity back into the market. The pipeline had begun to take intraday nominations late Monday...