Natural gas futures, which plummeted more than $1.40 early in the week, rallied for a second day on Thursday. Mounting global demand began to overshadow an expected boost to domestic supplies following a fire at a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal on Quintana Island, TX, last week.

At A Glance:

  • Production falls to 97 Bcf/d
  • Forecasts for mixed demand
  • NGI models draw of 41 Bcf

The July Nymex gas futures contract settled at $7.464/MMBtu on Thursday, up 4.4 cents day/day. August gained 3.2 cents to $7.438. Trading proved erratic throughout the day, but the prompt month did eclipse the $8.00 threshold at one point in the day.

NGI’s Spot Gas National Avg. rose 8.5 cents to $7.625.

To be sure, the explosion earlier this month at the Freeport LNG export terminal, and the...