Natural gas prices renewed their downward trend and sharply declined during last week, mainly during the first half of last week. The late arrival of winter in the U.S. may have been among the contributing factors for the sharp drop in natural gas prices.
Here is a short review of the development of natural gas prices for the week ending on December 16th:
Natural Gas Prices November – Weekly Review and Analysis
Nymex Henry Hub Future Price (short term delivery) sharply dropped during last week by 3.81% and reached on Friday $3.13/mmbtu; its average daily change was -1.13%, and its weekly average price was 7.11% below the previous week’s average price.
Natural gas spot price (Henry Hub) also sharply declined by 3.19% during the week, but its average price was 9.25% 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) remained in Contango during the week; by Friday the gap reached $0.10/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 12 to December 16.
The first chart describes the changes of natural gas spot price and Henry Hub future price during last week: the Henry Hub prices had a downward trend during most of last week.
The second chart presents the daily percent changes of natural gas spot price (Henry Hub) and Nymex Henry Hub future price. The sharpest drop in the natural gas spot price came on Monday, while the sharpest decline for the Henry Hub future price was on Wednesday.
EIA Natural Gas Report – Highlights:
The underground natural gas storage (Billion Cubic Feet) sharply dropped for the third consecutive week; last week by 102 Bcf to 3,729 billion cubic feet for all lower 48 states; the current natural gas storage is 10.3% above the 5-year average, and is 4.3% 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: