Weekly natural gas cash prices soared as production struggled and expectations for robust summer demand mounted.

EIA storage

NGI’s Weekly Spot Gas National Avg. for the May 2-6 period jumped $1.075 cents to $7.800.

Fueled by forecasts for strong natural gas demand in the summer ahead and elevated calls for American exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) amid the war in Ukraine, the June Nymex futures contract surged as well. It settled at $8.043/MMBtu to close the trading week on Friday, up 11% from the prior week’s finish.

Relatively weak natural gas output in the wake of blizzard-induced freeze-offs in late April intersected with spring maintenance projects. This left production about 2 Bcf below 2022 highs throughout most of the past week.

At the same time, the onset of early...