Natural gas market continues to cool down as it did in recent weeks: the Henry Hub price declined during last week and ended the first week of October at $3.40/ MMbtu – the lowest price level in 2011. Furthermore, the Nymex Henry Hub Future Price (November delivery) reached $3.48/ MMbtu, also the lowest price level in 2011.
Here is a short review of the main changes in natural gas prices for the week ending on October 7th:
Natural Gas Prices September – Weekly Review and Analysis
Nymex Henry Hub Future Price (November delivery) declined during last week by 3.79% and reached on Friday $3.48/mmbtu; its average daily change was -1.02%, and its weekly average price was 4.66% below the previous week’s average price.
Natural gas spot price (Henry Hub) also sharply declined by 4.76% during the week, and its average price was 7.40% 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 Contango throughout the week, and by Friday the gap was $0.08, i.e. contango.
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 October 3- October 7.
The chart shows the weekly development of natural gas spot price and Henry Hub future price as they both had a downward trend during most of last 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 sharp falls, then in the middle of the week inclined and by the end of the week resumed their decline.
EIA Natural Gas Report – Highlights:
The underground natural gas storage (Billion Cubic Feet) increased by 2.9% to 3,409 billion cubic feet for all lower 48 states – the highest stock level since December 10th, 2010; the current natural gas storage is still 2.2% 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 consumption increased while natural gas production slipped during the week of September 30th.
For the complete natural gas market report, see here.
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