With unrelenting scorching temperatures permeating the Lower 48, natural gas prices for August baseload gas were trending sharply higher on the first two days of bidweek trading (July 25-26), NGI’s Bidweek Alert data showed.

SoCal Citygate Bidweek Prices

Notably, gas prices at the majority of U.S. locations moved back above $8.00/MMBtu for August delivery, after having slumped below $6.00 for July baseload. At that time, the market was still digesting the impacts of the Freeport LNG outage stemming from an early June explosion.

Initially, it was thought the 2 Bcf/d in lost demand earmarked for the liquefied natural gas terminal would lead to a more robust rebuild of inventories. Stocks were drained following a prolonged winter and struggled throughout the spring to gain momentum.

However, June came in...