Natural gas market didn’t shift as the crude oil market did last week, but natural gas prices did come down during the week. By the end of the week, the Nymex Henry Hub Future Price (October delivery) reached $3.70/ MMbtu, and the Henry Hub spot price ended at $3.74/ MMbtu.
Here is a short review of the main changes in natural gas prices for the week ending on September 23rd:
Natural Gas Prices 2011 September – Weekly Review and Analysis
Natural gas spot price (Henry Hub) declined during the week by 1.06% and reached on Friday $3.74/mmbtu; its average daily change was -0.85%, and its weekly average price was 4.6% below the previous week’s average price.
Nymex Henry Hub Future Price (October delivery) fell by 3.37% during the week, and its average price was 4.26% 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 mostly in Backwardation throughout the week; By Friday it reached -$0.04/mmbtu – i.e. Backwardation.
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 September 19- September 23.
The chart presents the weekly development of natural gas spot price and Henry Hub future price as they both had a downward trend during most of the week.
The second chart presents the daily percent changes of natural gas spot price (Henry Hub) and Nymex Henry Hub future price; they have started the week with little changes, but during the second part of the week they declined.
EIA Natural Gas Report – Highlights:
The underground natural gas storage (Billion Cubic Feet) inclined last week by 2.9% and reached 3,201 billion cubic feet for all lower 48 states – the highest stock level since December 24th, 2011; the natural gas storage is still 3.9% below the storage level during the same week in 2010.
The chart below shows the natural gas storage (weekly figures) and Henry Hub natural gas prices in 2011.
To sum up, natural gas storage, imports and production increased while natural gas consumption fell during the week of September 16th.
For the complete natural gas market report, see here.
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