Natural gas futures flexed some pricing muscle on Friday on the heels of a solidly bullish storage report and a shift hotter in an already sizzling late-summer weather outlook. The August Nymex gas futures contract gained 36.7 cents day/day and settled at $8.299/MMBtu to close the week. September advanced 38.0 cents to $8.195.

market

At A Glance:

  • Markets digest seasonally weak storage build
  • Forecasts show intense heat into August
  • Production momentum challenges persist

NGI’s Spot Gas National Avg. followed suit, rising 1.5 cents to $8.385.

Markets on Friday mulled the implications of a seasonally weak inventory build and the prospect of more to come as exceptional cooling demand has come to define the summer of 2022.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration on Thursday posted...