US natural gas futures edged higher on Thursday, reaching their highest level in eight weeks, amid persistent warm temperatures, ahead of the weekly gas storage report.
The front-month Henry Hub contract and the continuous contract both rose by 0.95% to $2.984 per million British thermal units.
This comes amid forecasts of above-normal temperatures expected to blanket more than two-thirds of the country from September 10 through September 16, according to the National Weather Service.
Meanwhile, Chicago, along with other parts of Illinois and the broader Midwestern region of the US, is under an extreme heat warning on Thursday, with temperatures forecast to reach above 35 degrees Celsius, leading to increased demand for space cooling.
Markets are also awaiting the weekly gas storage report from the US Energy Information Administration for the week ending August 28, with forecasts pointing to a net injection of 30 billion cubic feet of gas into storage, significantly above last week's 15 Bcf injection, according to Investing.com.
Fundamentals eased modestly, with output increasing by 0.9 Bcf/d to 110.2 Bcf/d, while total demand declined by 0.5 Bcf/d to 110.9 Bcf/d, according to NRG Energy.
LNG export feedgas flows were expected to remain elevated on Thursday, at 19.18 Bcf/d, significantly above the 30-day moving average of 18.25 Bcf/d, according to the Bloomberg LNG Feedgas Model.