 A very different story for natural gas, though, which saw its price continue to drop even as hot weather ups the demand for natural gas-fired electric generation in much of the country. The front month price plummeting almost 11 percent last week as the NYMEX August natural gas contract ended at $2.32 a million BTUs. Traders backed off because even with natural gas production dropping, supplies are still well ahead of the five-year average for this time of year.