Natural gas prices continued their downward trend during last week. By Friday the Henry Hub (short term delivery) tumbled down by nearly 6%. I have referred to tumble of natural gas prices in a recent post. Following these developments the difference between future and spot remained mostly in Backwardation. The NG storage continues to rise at a slightly slower rate than last year.
During last week the Henry Hub spot decreased by 3.07% and the future (September delivery) by 3.82%. During August (UTD), natural gas spot fell by 11.53% and the future (short term delivery) by 13.71%.
Here is a short review for the recent developments in natural gas market for the week ending on August 10th 2012:
Natural Gas Market– August Review
The Nymex Henry Hub Future (short term delivery) declined during last week by 3.82% and by Friday reached $2.77 /mmbtu; its average daily change was -0.73%, its weekly average price was 5.52% below the previous average price.
The Henry Hub spot also decreased during last week by 3.07%, and its average price was 6.33% below the previous average price.
The gap between the NG future and spot prices – future minus spot – was mostly in Backwardation during the week; by the end the difference reached -$0.07, i.e. Backwardation.
Natural Gas Charts
The following charts presents Nat Gas (Henry Hub) and future (Nymex Henry Hub) in $/mmbtu between August 6th and August 10th.
The first chart shows the changes of NAT Gas (Henry Hub future and spot) as natural gas future and spot rose during most of the week.
In the second chart are the daily percent changes of the Henry Hub spot and Nymex Henry Hub future (short term delivery).
NG Storage Update – EIA Report:
According to the recent EIA report on natural gas the underground storage (Billion Cubic Feet) increased by 24 Bcf to 3,241 billion cubic feet for all lower 48 states; the NGs storage was 13.5% above the 5-year average, and was also 16.8% above the storage level during the same week in 2011.
The recent NG storage weekly update as of August 3rd.
For further reading: