September Natural Gas Called Slightly Higher Early as Heat, LNG Remain Supportive

Aided by hot temperatures in the forecast and an improved outlook for export demand, natural gas futures continued to build on their recent upward momentum in early trading Wednesday. The September Nymex contract was up 1.0 cent to $2.203/MMBtu at around 8:50 a.m. ET.

The gains this week have occurred on a combination of rallying European prices, higher expectations for liquefied natural gas (LNG) export demand, warmer forecasts and lower-than-expected production to start the month, according to Genscape Inc. analyst Joe Bernardi.

“We are continuing to model a significant increase for August LNG demand compared to July,” Bernardi said.

NGI’s LNG Flow Tracker showed deliveries to U.S. LNG export terminals reaching 4.02 million Dth/d for Tuesday, a noticeable increase...