With stifling heat and high humidity spreading across the Eastern Seaboard this week, natural gas forward prices across New England raced higher with pipelines tapped out and unable to move additional supply to the region.

ngi basis curve graph

Fixed prices for August soared $1.86 for the trading period through Wednesday (July 21) to reach $8.236/MMBtu at the Algonquin Citygate, according to NGI’s Forward Look. Even more telling of the dire situation, Algonquin August basis prices jumped 45.0 cents to plus 22.9 cents. For comparison, the vast majority of North American markets saw basis prices shift no more than a nickel for August.

Prices were strong throughout the remainder of summer, with September fixed prices edging up $1.50 to $7.433 and the August-October strip climbing $1.64 to $7.760,...