Natural gas prices didn’t so much during the week despite their sharp daily shifts. Since natural gas changed direction almost daily, the Henry Hub didn’t present a certain trend during the week. Following these changes the difference between future and spot shifted from Contango to Backwardation almost daily. The recent rally in oil prices during last week may have contributed to the rise in natural gas future rate. The NG storage continues to rise at a much slower pace than in the past.
During last week the Henry Hub spot fell by 2.04% while the future (August delivery) rose by 3.24%. During the month, natural gas spot increased by 5.11% and the future (short term delivery) by 1.77%.
Here is a short overview for the recent changes in natural gas market for the week ending on July 13th 2012:
Natural Gas Market– July Review
The Nymex Henry Hub Future (short term delivery) increased during last week by 3.24% and by Friday reached to $2.87 /mmbtu; its average daily change was 0.7%, its weekly average price was 0.84% below the previous average price.
The Henry Hub spot decreased during last week by 2.04%, and its average price was 0.35% below the previous average price.
The difference between the NG future and spot prices, i.e. future minus spot (if the spot is higher than the future it is named Backwardation, if future is higher than spot it is named Contango) shifted between Contango and Backwardation during the week but finished the week in Backwardation; by the end the difference reached -$0.01, i.e. Backwardation.
Natural Gas Charts
The following charts present Nat Gas (Henry Hub) and future (Nymex Henry Hub) in $/mmbtu between July 9th and July 13th.
The first chart presents the changes of NAT Gas (Henry Hub future and spot) as natural gas future and spot changed direction during the week from gains to losses with an unclear trend.
In the second chart are the daily percent shifts of the Henry Hub spot and Nymex Henry Hub future (short term delivery).
NG Storage Update – EIA Report:
This week there was no EIA report on natural gas or an update on the underground storage (Billion Cubic Feet); the storage is still at 3,063 billion cubic feet for all lower 48 states; the NGs storage is 25% above the 5-year average, and is also 27.1% above the storage level during the same week in 2011.
The recent NG storage weekly update as of July 6th.
For further reading: