NEW YORK: US natural gas futures rose to a near one-week high on Wednesday, supported by summer cooling demand and gains in oil prices, while investors awaited a federal storage report due later this week.
Front-month gas futures for August delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 7.2 cents, or 2.5percent, to USD2.94 per million British thermal units (mmBtu). Traders await the release of the US Energy Information Admi nistration’s weekly gas storage report due on Thursday.
“We’ve got the summer weather across most of the country, and that’s keeping natural gas demand for air conditioning. Technically, the prices are a little on the oversold condition, meaning we could see a kind of a technical rally,” said Thomas Saal, senior vice president for energy trading at StoneX Financial.
Meteorologists forecast the weather would remain mostly warmer than normal through August 5, forcing power generators to continue burning lots of gas to keep air conditioners humming. About 40percent of US power generation comes from gas-fired plants.
LSEG projected average gas demand in the Lower 48 states, including exports, would rise slightly from 110.1 bcfd this week to 110.2 bcfd next week. The forecast for this week was lower than LSEG’s outlook on Friday.
Meanwhile, oil prices rose to their highest in almost six weeks, with Brent crude surpassing USD95 a barrel, on mounting concerns about disruptions to Middle Eastern supply routes because of escalating hostilities between the US and Iran and threats to shipping by the Iran-backed Houthi militia in Yemen.
LSEG said average gas output in the US Lower 48 states rose to 110.4 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) so far in July, up from 110.0 bcfd in June, but remained below the monthly record high of 110.6 bcfd in December 2025.
Average gas flows to the nine big US LNG export plants eased to 17.3 bcfd so far in July due in part to maintenance at Freeport LNG’s export plant in Texas, down from 17.4 bcfd in June and the monthly record high of 18.8 bcfd in April.
“We are leaving open the possibility of a significant tightening in supply next month if LNG exports can pick up again amid what could still prove to be an exceptionally hot summer,” consultancy Ritterbusch & Associates said in a note.
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