US natural gas futures were mixed on Wednesday, as demand continued to ease, even as output held steady ahead of the weekly gas storage report.
The front-month Henry Hub contract fell 0.34% to $2.653 per million British thermal units, while the continuous contract was up 0.22% to $2.707/MMBtu.
Natural gas demand eased slightly to 111.7 billion cubic feet per day, primarily driven by a 2.9 Bcf/d decline in gas-fired power generation, as space cooling demand moderated across the Southeast and Northeastern parts of the country, according to NRG Energy.
Meanwhile, total gas output was largely steady, with just a slight 0.5 Bcf/d decline, at 107.9 Bcf/d, leading to downward pressure on the commodity.
The markets are awaiting the US Energy Information Administration's Weekly Gas Storage Supplement on Thursday, with forecasts pointing to a 37 Bcf net injection into working gas, up from 32 Bcf the prior week, but below 48 Bcf during the same period last year, according to data compiled by Investing.com.
LNG export feedgas flows are expected to edge higher, at 18.13 Bcf/d, which was still lower than the 30-day moving average for this period, at 18.21 Bcf/d, according to Bloomberg's LNG Feedgas Model.
This comes as the Freeport LNG facility in Texas begins scheduled maintenance, which is expected to last deep into August.
Above-average temperatures are expected to blanket the entire country from August 5th through 11th, according to the National Weather Service, which should keep space cooling and power demand elevated in the near term.