en.Wedoany.com Reported - U.S. natural gas futures edged up about 1% on Tuesday, as forecasts indicated hotter-than-expected weather over the next two weeks, boosting power cooling demand in mid-June, while recent production showed a slow decline.

The near-month natural gas futures contract for July delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 3.9 cents, or 1.2%, to settle at $3.186 per million British thermal units (MMBtu). On Monday, the contract had closed at its lowest level since May 27.

In the spot market, natural gas prices at the Waha Hub in West Texas rose to their highest since early February but remained in negative territory for the 86th consecutive day, setting a record for the longest stretch of negative prices. This situation is due to rising fuel demand as summer approaches, while pipeline companies are completing spring maintenance work.

In the Pacific Northwest, ample low-cost hydropower and weak demand pushed next-day power prices at the Mid-Columbia hub on the Washington-Oregon border to negative 40 cents per megawatt-hour, the lowest since the contract hit a record low of negative 77 cents in March 2017.

Data from financial group London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) showed that average natural gas production in the lower 48 U.S. states had fallen to 109.1 Bcf/d as of June, down from 109.7 Bcf/d in May and the monthly record high of 110.6 Bcf/d set in December 2025. The average so far in June is lower than Monday's data.

Analysts noted that mild spring weather has allowed energy companies to store more natural gas than usual. However, the recent production decline could reduce the surplus of natural gas in storage for the week ending June 5 from about 6% above normal levels the previous week to about 5%.

Meteorologists forecast that weather will remain mostly hotter than normal through June 24, which would increase the amount of natural gas consumed by gas-fired power plants to keep air conditioners running. About 40% of U.S. electricity comes from gas-fired power plants.

LSEG expects average natural gas demand in the lower 48 states (including exports) to rise from 102.6 Bcf/d this week to 103.6 Bcf/d next week. These forecasts are similar to LSEG's outlook on Monday.

Due to spring maintenance at several facilities, including ExxonMobil/QatarEnergy's Golden Pass facility and Freeport LNG's plant in Texas, average natural gas inflows to the nine major U.S. LNG export plants have fallen from 17.1 Bcf/d in May to 16.3 Bcf/d so far in June. This compares with a monthly record high of 18.8 Bcf/d for LNG feedgas in April.

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