Natural Gas – Weekly Recap August 5-9

The natural gas market doesn’t seem to pull up as the price declined again during last week mainly during at the beginning of the week. Despite the fall in prices, the demand for natural gas in the power sectors rose last week while residential/commercial fell – the total demand slightly increased; the supply slightly declined. According to the EIA natural gas storage weekly report, natural gas storage injection was 96 Bcf, which was much higher than the five year average and last year’s injections. These recent changes may have contributed to the fall of natural gas price during the previous week.   

Here is a short breakdown of the latest developments in natural gas market for the week ending on August 2nd 2013:

Natural Gas Market – August Recap

During the previous week, the Nymex Henry Hub Future (short term delivery) fell again by 3.5% and reached by Friday $3.23/mmbtu – its lowest level since the middle of February 2013; its average daily change was -0.7%; its weekly average rate was 3.87% below last week’s average price.

The difference between the NG future and spot prices – future minus spot – was mostly in Backwardation during the previous week.

Natural Gas Charts

The following charts presents the changes in Nat Gas future (Nymex Henry Hub) in $/mmbtu during August 5-9.

Natural Gas price  chart -  August 5-9  2013As seen in the chart herein, the natural gas price (Henry Hub future rate) tumbled down during last week.

 

In the second chart are the daily percent shifts of the Nymex Henry Hub future (short term delivery).

Natural Gas chart - percent change  August 5-9  2013EIA NG Storage Weekly Update:

 

The underground natural gas storage (Billion Cubic Feet) sharply increased again during last week by 3.37% or by 96 Bcf; the storage reached 2,941 billion cubic feet for all lower 48 states; the current storage is 0.7% below the 5-year average and 9.20% below the storage during the same week in 2012. The recent injection was much higher than the five year average and last year’s: During the same week in August 2012 the natural gas injection was only 24 Bcf, and the five year average injection to storage for the same week of August was 42 Bcf. This week’s injection was mostly due to the Eastern consuming region, in which the injection was 58 Bcf.

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