Record-setting heat across the western US has sparked a surge in cooling demand and threatened large-scale power blackouts in California for the first time in 20 years.

Meanwhile the US Gulf Coast has been hit by significant hurricane activity this year, interrupting natural gas production from the Gulf of Mexico as well as liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports.

Those forces have helped spark a near-doubling in US natural gas prices from multi-year lows in June, a surge that’s understandably caught many investors’ attention. And, there are some longer-term developments, such as the recent decline in associated gas supply due to an historic decline in drilling activity, that could help finally put a floor under this long-suffering market.