Natural gas price (Henry Hub spot) continued to decline during the first week of the year, while the natural gas price (future short term) changed direction and rallied.
Here is a short review of the development of natural gas price for the week ending on January 6th, the first week of 2012:
Natural Gas January – Weekly Review and Analysis
Natural gas price, the Nymex Henry Hub Future Price (short term delivery) rose during last week by 2.34% and reached on Friday $3.06 /mmbtu; its average daily change was 0.63%, but its weekly average price was 1.43% below the previous week’s average price.
Natural gas price (Henry Hub spot) on the other hand sharply fell by 3.69% during the week, and its average price was 2.59% below last week’s average price.
The difference between the Henry Hub future and spot, 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 be in Contango during the week; by Friday the gap rose to $0.19/mmbtu, i.e. Contango.
Natural Gas Price Charts
The following charts present the daily changes of natural gas prices (Henry Hub) and futures prices (Nymex Henry Hub) in $/mmbtu during January 2 to January 6.
The first chart shows the development of natural gas price (Henry Hub future and spot) during the week: the natural gas price (spot) continued to decline during the week while natural gas price (future short term delivery) zigzagged during the week and ended up the slightly above its initial price level .
The second chart presents the daily percent changes of natural gas price (Henry Hub spot and Nymex Henry Hub future). The sharpest increase in the natural gas price (future) came on Wednesday and then on Friday, while the Henry Hub natural gas price declined every day of the week.
Natural Gas Storage Update – EIA Report:
The underground natural gas storage (Billion Cubic Feet) last week by 2.14% and reached 3,472 billion cubic feet for all lower 48 states; the current natural gas storage is 15.2% above the 5-year average, and also 11.4% above the storage level during the same week in 2010. The higher than normal levels of natural gas storage might explain the drop in natural gas prices during recent weeks.
For the complete natural gas storage report, see here.
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