Natural Gas Market Note | 05.12.2026
Prices retreat as back-and-forth trading continues.
NYMEX natural gas futures retreated on the day, with deliveries through Winter 2026-27 dropping 6 to 7 cents on average. The June 2026 contract gave up $0.07 to end the day near $2.84 per MMBtu. That contract is still up on the week, but the rest of the curve through 2027 is below week- and month-ago levels. Before reversing course to the downside, June traded to an overnight high of $2.945 per MMBtu, marking the highest tick for prompt-month gas since late March.
Near-term temperature forecasts still look conducive to elevated cooling load over the next two weeks. However, expected anomalies softened for the 11-15-day period compared to yesterday’s outlook across most of the eastern two-thirds of the country, perhaps contributing to today’s price declines. The upcoming heat wave is expected to peak over the weekend in the Midcontinent and early next week in the East before more seasonable temperatures return to both regions.
Natural gas demand from the power generation sector has averaged just above 30.5 Bcf per day so far in May, representing an increase of about 1.5 Bcf per day compared to the same period in 2025. The lower price environment in 2026 is leading to higher utilization of gas-fired generation assets across the country, increasing gas consumption on a weather-normalized basis. Demand from this sector looks poised to continue outpacing year-ago levels, which could limit storage growth into the peak summer months.
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