July Nymex natural gas (NGN23) on Wednesday closed up +0.002 (+0.09%).
July nat-gas Wednesday climbed to a 2-week high and settled slightly higher. Nat-gas has support on the outlook for increased power demand in Texas, the largest nat-gas consuming state. The Electricity Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) said Tuesday that due to soaring temperatures this week, it expects air-conditioning use in Texas to climb to a record 80.3 gigawatts on Thursday and even higher on Friday. U.S. nat-gas prices also have carryover support from a Wednesday's rally in European nat-gas prices to a 1-1/2 month high. However, nat-gas prices gave up most of their gains after forecaster Atmospheric G2 said abnormally cool temperatures next week in the eastern and western U.S. will keep a lid on total U.S. power demand.
