With summer unofficially underway, the mercury is poised to rise and recent price action Tuesday — in both June bidweek and futures trading — showed natural gas markets heating up.

Widespread gains, particularly in the Northeast and in the West, lifted NGI’s June Bidweek National Avg. to $2.825/MMBtu, a 14-cent increase from May prices and well above the $1.545 average recorded for June 2020 bidweek.

The June Nymex contract went out on a high note last week, ultimately settling just shy of the $3.00 mark at $2.984. That corresponded with a 5.5-cent sequential increase in the average of fixed-plus-basis trades at Henry Hub for June bidweek, setting the pace for month/month gains at most locations.

Meanwhile, the first day of June got off to an auspicious start for...