The month of February ended and during March natural gas spot price will likely to descend. There is still cold weather in North America; however the extreme cold weather has subsided and will probably continue to do so during March. While there is still high consumption of natural gas, it doesn’t seem to affect natural gas price as it continues to decline during the week.
In a nutshell, Henry Hub (spot and future) price along with New York City Gate spot price fell during last week.
Let’s check out the main figures in the natural gas market for this passing week of 28th February to 4th of March:
Natural gas spot price – Review and Analysis
* 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 spot price (Henry Hub) declined from beginning to end of the week by 5.85% and reached 3.7$/mmbtu at the end of the week. On average, it fell by 0.56% on a daily basis, and the average weekly price was 0.5% below the average weekly price in the previous week.
The Nymex Henry Hub Future Price (April delivery) also declined last week by 5.62% from beginning to end of the week; its average price was 0.9% lower than last week’s average price.
The Contango (the spread between the future and spot prices, i.e. future minus spot) for Henry Hub continue to fluctuate during the week as it settled at the end of the week on 0.11$/mmbtu – the highest spread this passing week.
This passing week’s average NY gate natural gas spot price fell by 1.3% compare to last week’s average price; its price fell by 6.56% from beginning to end of the week. If New York won’t experience any further snow storms this winter, we will probably continue seeing a downward trend in this commodity’s price.
Natural gas price chart
The following chart show the changes of natural gas spot price (Henry Hub) and futures price (Nymex Henry Hub) in $/mmbtu for this passing week:
The final graph shows the natural gas spot price (Henry Hub) and futures price (Nymex Henry Hub) daily percent change during last week.
Natural gas storage, consumption and production – highlights:
Here are the main highlights of the recent EIA weekly report on natural gas: last week (of 25th of February) the underground natural gas storage (Billion Cubic Feet) fell for the fifteenth straight week, by 4.6%, or 85 billion cubic feet; this draw, was similar to last week’s draw (81 billion cubic feet) and much smaller than the 5-year average draw of 131 BcF; furthermore, the natural gas storage was lower than the five year average by 15 BcF.
The natural gas storage reached a total of 1,745 billion cubic feet for all lower 48 states, which is higher by 8 billion cubic feet for the same week in 2010; this is also the lowest level since April 2010
Natural gas consumption rose in the U.S. during the week ending on February 25th: the average daily consumption in the US increased by 5% compares to the previous week; the main cause for this rise is due to the incline by 6% compare to the previous week in residential and commercial sectors’ consumption. This might be because of the cold temperatures in the Northeast of US.
In total, imports declined and production and consumption rose.
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For further reading (on this site):
- Natural gas storage fell, consumption rose | EIA review, Mar 4
- Natural gas prices outlook for March 2011
Previous issues of weekly report:
- Natural gas spot price fell but future rose – Weekly recap 21-25 February
- Natural gas prices naturally fell – Weekly recap 14-18 February
- Gas prices continue to freefall – Weekly recap 7-11 February
- Gas prices continue falling – Weekly recap Jan 31-4 Feb