Natural gas futures rallied on Monday as production slipped, expectations for strong cooling demand increased and a cut to global oil supplies created potential support for LNG prices.

Coming off a 1.4-cent gain Friday, the July Nymex gas futures contract gained 7.3 cents day/day and settled at $2.245/MMBtu to start the new trading week. August rose 6.7 cents to $2.366.

NGI’s Spot Gas National Avg. climbed 26.5 cents on Monday to $1.900.  

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

Production dipped just below 100 Bcf/d over the weekend, off about 1 Bcf/d from last week’s pace, while forecasts as of Monday pointed to more impressive summer heat on the way.

Both the American...