The July natural gas futures contract traded in negative territory for most of Thursday's session but ended the day with a slight0.2￠ gain closing at $3.253 per million Btu after trading in a $3.187-$3.264. The EIA storage report showed a build that was much lower than the five-year average and included the PG&E reclassification of 51 Bcf inthe Pacific region for the week ending Jul 11, which was expected -- and as such was already priced into the market ( Briefly Noted ). Meanwhile, gas demand for power generation surged across the US. "For the past month, natural gas power demand across the country hasspiked upwards of 37 Bcf/d, despite fuel switching to coal prompted by $3-plus natural gas prices," a Gelber & Associates analyst said. "Earlyhot June temperatures that baked the West (and continue to do so) helped 2021 power demand surpass those of previous years."
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