May 9 (Reuters) - U.S. natural gas demand will remain at

record levels this summer driven by power market consumption and

exports, but prices will decline from last year due to a

production increase and higher storage levels, according to a

summer outlook from the Natural Gas Supply Association (NGSA),

an industry group, on Thursday.

NGSA's 2024 Summer Outlook foresees downward pressure on

prices, despite it projecting 1% increase in customer demand

compared to last summer.

Summer is defined as April through October, the industry's

traditional cooling season, NGSA added.

"NGSA's forecast predicts a record amount of temporary

switching to lower-carbon natural gas-fired generation this

summer because of the highly-competitive price of natural gas,"

said Freeman Shaheen, Chairman of NGSA and President of Global

Gas at Chevron ( CVX ).

"The power generation mix of our country is rapidly

changing. Since 2018, almost 200 gigawatts of new natural gas,

renewable resources, and energy storage capacity has already

been or will soon be integrated into the grid," Shaheen added.