A sweltering summer temperature outlook overshadowed ongoing demand destruction from the Freeport LNG terminal outage to send natural gas forwards prices soaring during the July 7-13 trading period, NGI’s Forward Look data show.

California Prices

Fixed price trading for August delivery at benchmark Henry Hub surged $1.179 higher week/week to $6.690/MMBtu. That established the baseline for fixed price gains of $1-plus at most Lower 48 hubs during the period.

Based on the latest forecasts Thursday, the back half of July was set to bring “strong to very strong national demand” as a result of widespread summer heat, according to NatGasWeather.

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Between Saturday...