Natural gas prices (Henry Hub) didn’t incline much during the week; the average natural gas prices are still high compared with the prices in previous weeks, but the Henry Hub didn’t do much during most of the week and even ended the week with falls for the Henry Hub spot price.
Here is a short review of the main changes in natural gas prices for the week ending on June 10th:
Natural gas prices 2011 June – Review and Analysis
Natural gas spot price (Henry Hub) declined during the week by 2.28% and reached on Friday to $4.72/mmbtu; its average daily change was 0.03%, and its weekly average price was 3.73% above the previous week’s average price.
The Nymex Henry Hub Future Price (July delivery) also declined by 1.39% during the week, but its average price was 1.89% below last week’s average price.
In short, natural gas prices declined during the week, but natural gas average prices were still high compared with previous week.
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) started off the week with little gap in between them, continued to Backwardation (i.e. the spot price was higher than spot price) and ended the week in Contango (i.e. future price higher than spot price) at $0.04/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 June 6 to 10.
The chart shows how natural gas prices didn’t change much at the beginning of the week, and ended up below the prices they have started off the week.
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 the rapid changes in natural gas prices, as they inclined sharply at the beginning and the middle of the week, while they finished the week with falls.
EIA Natural gas report – highlights:
The underground natural gas storage (Billion Cubic Feet) continues to stock up as it inclined for the ninth straight week, last week by 3.8% or by 80 Bcf; as a result, the natural gas storage rose to 2.187 billion cubic feet for all lower 48 states; the natural gas storage is still 2.6% below the 5-year average.
The chart below presents the natural gas storage (weekly figures) and Henry Hub natural gas prices during 2011; the chart shows the rise in natural gas spot prices despite the rise in NG storage.
For the complete natural gas market report, see here.
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For further reading:
Previous issues of weekly report:
- Natural gas prices start June with rises – 31 May to June 3
- Natural gas market continues its comeback – 23-27 May