With intense summer heat in Texas and the South forecast to become more widespread beginning next month to drive up cooling demand, natural gas prices for July baseload delivery strengthened, according to NGI’s Bidweek Alert.

Bidweek Prices

Price increases were most significant on the West Coast, where triple-digit desert highs combined with an ongoing deficit in storage inventories and planned pipeline maintenance to lend support to prices, data on day one of July bidweek trading showed. In observance of the U.S. Independence Day holidays on Monday and Tuesday, NGI’s July Bidweek Survey will be published on Wednesday, July 5.

The National Weather Service said the multi-week heatwave that’s blanketed the South Central United States in recent weeks is expected to expand as the ridge of...