The price of natural gas changed direction again and rose during most of last week mainly in Thursday. The demand for natural gas in the residential/commercial and power sectors increased last week, while the supply slightly declined. Moreover, according to the EIA natural gas storage weekly update, natural gas storage injection was 58 Bcf, which was lower than five year average. These developments may have contributed to the rally of natural gas price on Thursday.
During last week, short term future price of natural gas (August delivery; Henry Hub) rose by 3.98%.
Here is a short breakdown of the latest developments in natural gas market for the week ending on July 19th 2013:
Natural Gas Market – July Update
During last week, the Nymex Henry Hub Future (short term delivery) increased by 3.98% and reached by Friday $3.79/mmbtu; its average daily change was 0.81%; its weekly average rate was 1.34% above last week’s average price.
The gap between the NG future and spot prices – future minus spot – shifted from Contango to Backwardation by the end of the week.
Natural Gas Charts
The following charts shows the changes in Nat Gas future (Nymex Henry Hub) in $/mmbtu during July 15-19.
As seen in the chart herein, the natural gas rate (Henry Hub future rate) slightly rose during the week.
In the second chart are the daily percent shifts 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) rose during last week by 2.16% or by 58 Bcf; the storage reached 2,745 billion cubic feet for all lower 48 states; the current storage is 1.2% below the 5-year average and 13.10% below the storage during the same week in 2012. The recent injection was lower than the five year average but higher than last year: During the same week in July 2012 the natural gas injection was only 28 Bcf, and the five year average injection to storage for the same week of July was 67 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 spike in natural gas prices on Thursday by more than 5%.
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