NEW YORK: US natural gas futures were little changed on Wednesday as the tremendous oversupply of gas still in storage offset a bullish decline in output in recent days and forecasts for more hot weather over the next two weeks than previously expected.

That heat should boost the amount of gas power generators burn to keep air conditioners humming next week.

Front-month gas futures for September delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange was up 0.9 cent, or 0.4%, to $2.207 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) at 9:33 a.m. EDT (1333 GMT).

The tremendous oversupply of gas in storage has kept a lid on gas prices all year.

There was still about 13% more gas in storage than normal for this time of year even though weekly builds, including last week’s rare decline in August, have been smaller than normal in 13 of the past 14 weeks. The storage decline during the week ended Aug. 9 was the first weekly withdrawal in August since 2006.

In Texas, power demand in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) grid peaked at a preliminary record of 85,559 megawatts (MW) on Tuesday, topping the prior peak of 85,508 MW set on Aug 10 2023.

Real-time power prices in ERCOT topped $4,000/MW for three 15-minute intervals around 8 p.m. local time on Tuesday, peaking at $4,853 per MW, according to the ERCOT website. Day-ahead prices, where most firms sell energy, however, peaked at a much lower $123/MW-hour aro Producers increase and decrease output in reaction to prices, but it usually takes a few months for changes in drilling activity to show up in the production data.