Natural gas prices started the week with moderate gains, but by the end of the week natural gas prices sharply declined and thus eliminated all the gains at the beginning of the week.
Here is a short review of the development of natural gas prices for the week ending on December 23rd:
Natural Gas Prices December – Weekly Review and Analysis
Nymex Henry Hub Future Price (short term delivery) declined during last week by 1.63% and reached on Friday $3.11/mmbtu; its average daily change was -0.54%, and its weekly average price was 1.63% below the previous week’s average price.
Natural gas spot price (Henry Hub) also declined by 2.66% during the week, and its average price was 1.69% below last week’s average price.
The difference 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 be in Contango during the week; by Friday the gap rose to $0.18/mmbtu, i.e. Contango.
Natural Gas Prices Charts
The following charts present the daily changes of natural gas prices (Henry Hub) and futures prices (Nymex Henry Hub) in $/mmbtu during December 19 to December 23.
The first chart shows the development of natural gas spot price and Henry Hub future price during the week: the Henry Hub prices had a moderate upward trend during the beginning of last week, but by the end of the week they sharply fell.
The second chart shows the daily percent changes of natural gas spot price (Henry Hub) and Nymex Henry Hub future price. The sharpest increase in the natural gas spot price was on Thursday, while the sharpest decline for the Henry Hub prices was on Friday.
EIA Natural Gas Report – Highlights:
The underground natural gas storage (Billion Cubic Feet) declined for the fourth consecutive week; last week by 100 Bcf to 3,629 billion cubic feet for all lower 48 states; the current natural gas storage is 11.9% above the 5-year average, and is 6.9% above the storage level during the same week in 2010.
For the complete natural gas market report, see here.
For further reading:
Previous issues of weekly report: