09:13 AM EDT, 07/22/2022 (MT Newswires) -- Benchmark natural gas rose above the US$8.00 mark early on Friday as very hot weather over much of the country continues to boost heating demand and a weekly report showed injections into storage last week were lower than expected.
Gas for August delivery was last seen up US$0.13 to US$8.06 per million British thermal units, the highest since June 13.
The rise comes a day after the Energy Information Administration reported a 32-billion cubic foot rise in US gas inventories last week, well below consensus expectations for a rise of around 45-billion cubic feet as a record heat wave over much of the South and Midwest boosted heating demand.
"On a weather-adjusted basis, we estimate the market was ~3bcfd undersupplied for the week vs. 1bcfd oversupplied the week prior. Above average temperatures remain a primary driver of price action, with power generation rising to an all-time high of 47.5bcfd this week and tracking ~6bcfd higher than seasonal norms," Tudor, Pickering, Holt analyst Matthew Murphy noted.
The National Weather Service expects "searing heat" for the Midwest, South and East Coast this weekend, with highs above 100 Fahrenheit in many areas.
Still, the agency's longer-term forecast cooled as it now expects temperatures in the central US to be at or below seasonal norms for the six to 10-day forecast period.