The price of natural gas tumbled down during last week mainly on Monday. The demand for natural gas in the residential/commercial and power sectors slightly rose last week; the supply also slightly increased. Moreover, based on the EIA natural gas storage weekly report, natural gas storage injection was 41 Bcf, which was slightly below the five year average, but much higher than last year’s injection. These developments may have contributed to the fall of natural gas price by the end of the week.
During last week, short term future price of natural gas (August delivery; Henry Hub) fell by 6.18%.
Here is a short breakdown of the latest developments in natural gas market for the week ending on July 26th 2013:
Natural Gas Market – July Recap
During the previous week, the Nymex Henry Hub Future (short term delivery) fell by 6.18% and reached by Friday $3.56/mmbtu – its lowest level since the beginning of March 2013; its average daily change was -1.25%; its weekly average rate was 1.42% below last week’s average price.
The difference between the NG future and spot prices – future minus spot – zigzagged from Contango to Backwardation during most of the week.
Natural Gas Charts
The following charts presents the shifts in Nat Gas future (Nymex Henry Hub) in $/mmbtu during July 22-26.
As seen in the chart herein, the natural gas rate (Henry Hub future rate) fell during most of last week.
In the second chart are the daily percent changes of the Nymex Henry Hub future (short term delivery).
NG Storage Weekly Update – EIA Report:
Natural Gas Storage
The underground natural gas storage (Billion Cubic Feet) increased during last week by 1.49% or by 41 Bcf; the storage reached 2,786 billion cubic feet for all lower 48 states; the current storage is 1.6% below the 5-year average and 12.50% below the storage during the same week in 2012. The latest injection was still lower than the five year average but higher than last year: During the same week in July 2012 the natural gas injection was only 26 Bcf, and the five year average injection to storage for the same week of July was 49 Bcf. This week’s injection was mostly due to the Eastern consuming region, in which the injection was 37 Bcf. Perhaps the lower than average injection may have contributed to the fall in natural gas prices at the end of the week.
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