Natural gas futures flew higher on Thursday, bolstered by strong fundamentals and a bullish government inventory report that reinforced concerns about supply/demand imbalance and the specter of anemic storage levels ahead of winter.

EIA storage july 23

At A Glance:

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

The September Nymex contract, which took over as the prompt month on Thursday, jumped 9.2 cents day/day and settled at $4.059/MMBtu. A day earlier, August rolled off the board with a final settlement of $4.044. October gained 9.1 cents to $4.060 on Thursday.

Meanwhile, NGI’s Spot Gas National Avg. on Thursday shed 6.0 cents to $3.870. Lofty temperatures permeated much of the Lower 48, but rain and cooler highs in the 70s waded into major markets in...