1501 ET – U.S. natural gas futures rise as weather models add heat to the near-term outlook, while LNG feedgas flows continue recovering. Nymex natural gas settles up 3.2% at $2.776/mm Btu. “This market will remain heavily reliant upon a long-awaited upswing in export activity once LNG infrastructure maintenance is completed,” Ritterbusch & Associates says. For now the market “appears too late to sell but a bit too early to buy.”

1030 ET – Futures continue their recent range-bound pattern, falling one day and rising the next, with summer heat-driven demand offset by high production and ample inventories. Nymex natural gas is up 0.9% at $2.715/mm Btu. “Record output and the storage overhang are simply overpowering whatever residual weather-driven power burn is still left,” Phil Flynn of Price Futures Group says. “Nothing in the current outlook screams massive incremental power-burn demand.”