North American NatGas Prices Steady as LNG Projects Gather Momentum – Mexico Spotlight

North American natural gas futures prices for August moved closer to $7.00/MMBtu this week as summer heat began to settle in.

The August New York Mercantile Exchange contract climbed 52.6 cents day/day on Wednesday to close at $6.689/MMBtu. September rose 56.8 cents to $6.589. This is basically in line with where prices were for Mexico buyers of natural gas last week.

While U.S. LNG plants are running at full capacity, pipeline imports of U.S. gas into Mexico have slipped recently as domestic production inches up. 

According to Wood Mackenzie, Mexico pipeline imports in June were flat year/year at 6.3 Bcf/d. “And, so far in July, they are even lower at roughly 6.2 Bcf/d,” analyst Ricardo Falcón told NGI’s Mexico GPI.

NGI figures had pipeline flows to Mexico reaching...