Natural gas prices have shrugged off Wednesday’s rather precipitate drop to resume their upward trend for the week.
 
Prices have been rising on expectations of warmer weather, particularly in the central US, and yesterday new forecasts were produced that suggested milder weather (which would reduce air-conditioning use and therefore power consumption) was on its way. However, prices have also risen on news that both Japan and China have been increasing their imports of liquefied natural gas. Japan is currently the world’s biggest importer of gas, and the rise of China as a rival will increase supply competition, which would be bullish for prices.
 
New terminals in China are continuing to come online, increasing consumption, while Japan continues to need gas in order to offset the loss of power from nuclear plants, as safety tests keep some sites in shutdown mode. If the June import figures are replicated across the rest of 2011, there could be some good times ahead for natural gas prices.