Natural gas prices (Henry Hub) shifted direction coming July and started the month with sharp fall throughout most of the week. By the end of the week, the Henry Hub prices reached the levels they were at back in June 24th.
Here is a short review of the main changes in natural gas prices for the week ending on July 8th:
Natural gas prices 2011 July – Review and Analysis
Natural gas spot price (Henry Hub) fell during the week by 3.51% and reached on Friday to $4.21/mmbtu; its average daily change was 0.57%, and its weekly average price was 2.08% below the previous week’s average price.
The Nymex Henry Hub Future Price (August delivery) also declined by 4.77% during the week, and its average price was 0.64% below last week’s average price.
The spread 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) was in backwardation during most of the week, but by Friday it shifted direction to Contango at $0.02/mmbtu.
Natural gas prices chart
The following chart shows the daily changes of natural gas prices (Henry Hub) and futures prices (Nymex Henry Hub) in $/mmbtu during July 5-8.
The chart shows natural gas prices had a downward trend; the Henry Hub spot price fell all week, while natural gas future price broke its fall and rose on Friday.
The second chart shows the daily percent changes of natural gas prices (Henry Hub) and Nymex Henry Hub, (the changes around the weekly trend); it shows that natural gas prices rose at the beginning of the week, then shifted to red for the rest of the week for natural gas spot price, while the future price ended the week with a moderate increase.
EIA Natural gas report – highlights:
The underground natural gas storage (Billion Cubic Feet) inclined last week by 3.9% or by 95 Bcf 2.527 billion cubic feet for all lower 48 states; the natural gas storage is still 1.9% below the 5-year average, and 8.1% below the storage level during the same week in 2010.
The chart below shows that natural gas spot price is still lower by $0.34/mmbtu compared with its price level the same week last year; the chart also shows that the current rise in the natural gas storage is part of the seasonal stock up.
To sum up, natural gas storage, consumption, production and imports inclined during the week of July 1st.
For the complete natural gas market report, see here.
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For further reading:
Previous issues of weekly report:
- Natural gas prices rose during the week – June 27- July 1
- Natural gas prices declined during the week – June 20-24