The natural gas prices continued to rise during the last week of April and finished strong with the Henry Hub spot price reaching 4.5$/mmbtu and the future price (May delivery) reaching 4.7$/mmbtu – the highest level since January 20th 2011.
Let’s review the main changes in natural gas prices for the week ending on April 29th:
Natural gas prices 2011 April – Review and Analysis
Natural gas spot price (Henry Hub) rose from beginning to end of the week by 2.97% and reached 4.5$/mmbtu on Friday; Its average daily change was 0.78%, and its weekly average was 2.72% above the previous week’s average price.
The Nymex Henry Hub Future Price (May delivery) inclined by 7.09% during the week, and its average price was 4.92% above last week’s average price.
The spread between the Henry Hub future and spot gas prices, i.e. future price minus spot price (if the spot prices are higher than the future prices its called Backwardation, if future price is higher than its called Contango) continued to rise over the week and reached by the end of the week +0.2$/mmbtu, i.e. contango – this was the widest spread since March 25th. This might suggest that the traders’ expectations continue to be high for the natural gas in the coming weeks.
The comeback of natural gas during the month of April, might be related to the lower than normal temperatures, the rain and thunderstorms in Northeast; the tornados in parts of the US may have also affected the natural gas market from the demand and possibly from the supply side.
Natural gas prices chart
The following chart shows the daily changes of natural gas prices 2011 (Henry Hub) and futures prices (Nymex Henry Hub) in $/mmbtu during April 25-29.
The graph presents the upward trend of these prices during the second half of last week.
The second chart shows the daily percent changes of the Henry Hub natural gas prices and the Nymex Henry Hub, (the changes around the weekly trend). The chart shows there was a rise in the percent changes as these commodities’ prices changes increased by the end of the week.
Natural gas storage, consumption and production – highlights:
Here are the main highlights of the recent EIA weekly report on natural gas and regarding the week ending on April 22nd: The underground natural gas storage (Billion Cubic Feet) increased for the third straight week by 1.9%,; this was a 31 Bcf injection, as the total storage reached 1,685 billion cubic feet for all lower 48 states; the natural gas storage was 11 Bcf below the 5-year average, and 11.3% below the storage level during the same week in 2010.
The chart below shows the total natural gas storage (weekly figures) and Henry Hub spot price changes during 2011.
In total, natural gas prices, production and storage rose, while imports and consumption fell during the week ending on April 22nd.
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For further reading (on this site):
- Natural gas storage rose for third week | EIA review, April 29
- Natural gas prices outlook – 26 April
Previous issues of weekly report:
- Natural gas storage rose for third week | EIA review, April 29
- Natural gas prices made a comeback last week– 11-15 April
- Natural gas prices kept on freefalling most of the week – 4-8 April