Natural gas market continued to cool down after during the first couple of weeks of May NG rates spiked. According to the recent NG storage update, there was a 71 bcf injection, which is nearly 12 Bcf below the injection from a year earlier.
Following these developments the difference between future and spot was mostly in Contango; it reached a weekly average of $0.045/mmbtu.
During last week the Henry Hub spot plummeted by 12.84% and the future (short term delivery) tumbled down by 9.34%. During May, natural gas spot rose by 11.37% and the future (June delivery) by 3.42%.
Here is a short recap for the developments in natural gas market for the week ending on June 1st 2012:
Natural Gas Market– May Review
The Nymex Henry Hub Future (short term delivery) plummeted during last week by 9.34% and by Friday reached $2.33 /mmbtu; its average daily contraction was 1.93%, its weekly average price was 7.91% below the previous average price.
The Henry Hub spot also plunged during last week by 12.84%, and its average price was 7.16% below the previous average price.
The difference between the NG future and spot prices, i.e. future minus spot (if the spot are higher than the future its called Backwardation, if future is higher than its called Contango) was mostly in Contango during the week; by the end the difference reached $0.09, i.e. Contango.
Natural Gas Charts
The following charts presents Nat Gas (Henry Hub) and future (Nymex Henry Hub) in $/mmbtu between May 28th and June 1st.
The first chart shows the change in the direction of NAT Gas (Henry Hub future and spot) as natural gas future and spot declined during the second part of the week.
In the second chart are the daily percent changes of the Henry Hub spot and Nymex Henry Hub future (short term delivery).
NG Storage Update – EIA Report:
According to the recent update, the underground storage (Billion Cubic Feet) increased for the 10th consecutive weeks, last week the storage levels increased by 71 Bcf; the storage settled at 2,815 billion cubic feet for all lower 48 states; the current NGs storage is 34.6% above the 5-year average, and is also 35.1% above the storage level during the same week in 2011.
The recent NG storage weekly update as of May 25th.
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