Last week was characterized with an upward trend for crude oil price and natural gas spot price (except for New York City Gate Spot); here is a weekly recap on major energy commodities for the last week of the year, December 27-31:
Prices Analysis:
Crude oil
* This figure is calculated based on the percent change from the price at the beginning of the week compare to the price at the end of the week
Crude oil price showed an upward trend this passing week, after it didn’t move much the previous week. In total, the WTI rose by 5.3% from beginning to end of December, while Europe Brent rose by 6.5%.
The table above shows moderate rises of oil prices as the WTI crude oil price ranged between 89.89 $/b and 91.48 $/b – a range of 1.64$/b, which is a bit lower than last week’s range. This fluctuation represents a decrease in the volatility of crude oil price compare to last week, which could be due to the low volatility as the year wsa winding down.
Crude oil price (WTI), its average weekly price was higher this week by 1.5% compare to last week’s average price. On average, crude oil price (WTI) changed daily by 0.12% and its price increased by 0.43% from beginning to end of the week.
Europe Brent spot price showed a moderate upward trend as it’s currently hovering above 94 USD/b and it rose by 1.3% from beginning to end of the week; the average weekly Brent price was 0.5% higher compare to last week’s average.
At the end of the week all these prices rose by 1.7% for WTI and 2% for Brent spot price.
Crude oil Stocks for the passing week –highlights:
According to the recent EIA report, crude oil stocks continue to fall moderately, this time by 0.5%, which is a drop of over 9 million barrels of crude oil. This ongoing decline is part of the rise in demand for energy throughout the US mainly for heating purposes.
The Stocks of Total Gasoline also declined by 1.1% which is 2.3 million barrels, and reached 214.8 million barrels.
Natural gas
Natural gas spot price: the increase in the demand for Natural gas due to the cold weather, apparently takes its toll as its price rose last week: The natural gas spot price (Henry Hub) and Nymex Henry Hub Future Price increased as their average weekly price rose by 1.3% and 3.3%, respectively, compare to last week’s average prices. For the NY gate natural gas spot price this passing week’s average price fell by 13.5% for compare to last week’s average price.
Furthermore, the Nymex Henry Hub Future Price and natural gas spot price (Henry Hub) had a daily average change of 1.5% and 0.9%, respectively; the Henry Hub Spot rose by 7% from beginning to end of the week; NY gate natural gas spot price continued to show staggering rises and falls, as this week it fell by over 52% and reached similar levels it was back at the beginning of the month.
The New York City Gate natural gas Spot price reached 10.2 USD/mmbtu at the beginning of the week, however since then it only fell sharply to end the week at 4.83 USD/mmbtu;
* This figure is calculated based on the percent change from the price at the beginning of the week compare to the price at the end of the week
Natural gas Storage for the passing week –highlights:
In my last review on U.S. Natural gas storage, for the week of 24th of December there was a drop in Natural gas underground storage (Billion Cubic Feet) of 4%, which is a decline of over 136 Billion cubic feet.
Furthermore, the natural gas storage reached a total of 3,232 (Billion Cubic Feet) for all lower 48 states.
This ongoing decline is due to the expected increase in consumption of energy throughout the US mainly for heating purposes. These levels of storage are very high and similar to the storage level at the beginning of September 2010.
Oil and Natural gas Charts
The following charts show the changes of WTI spot price, Europe Brent spot price and NYMEX future prices:
The final graph shows the crude oil price and natural gas future prices (Nymex Henry Hub Future Prices) daily percent change ranging between 2.7 percent incline for Nymex Henry Hub Future Prices at the beginning of the week, and a 1.4 percent decline at the end of the week for Nymex futures crude oil prices.
For further reading:
- Natural gas spot price bounces back | review of Natural Gas storage (in this site)
- Natural gas spot price in 2010 and projection to 2011 (in this site)
- Gold and Silver Prices Review – weekly recap Jan 1st (in this site)