The natural gas market is heating up again as the price of Henry Hub has rallied again mainly during the first few days of the week. The latest rise in prices was partly due to the rise in demand for natural gas in the power sector and despite the decline in demand in the residential/commercial sector during last week; in total, the demand rose last week; the supply slightly expanded again. Based on the EIA natural gas storage weekly update, natural gas storage buildup was 67 Bcf, which was very near the five year average injection and last year’s injections.
Here is a short review of the latest shifts in natural gas market for the week ending on August 31st 2013:
Natural Gas Market – August Recap
During last week, the Nymex Henry Hub Future (short term delivery) rose by 2.75% and reached by Friday $3.58/mmbtu; its average daily change was 0.55%; its weekly average rate was 2.21% above last week’s average rate.
The spread between the NG future and spot prices – future minus spot – was mostly in Contango during the previous week.
Natural Gas Charts
The following charts present the developments in Nat-gas future (Nymex Henry Hub) in $/mmbtu during August 26-30.
As seen in the chart herein, the natural gas price (Henry Hub future rate) rose during last week until it declined on Friday.
In the second chart are the daily percent changes of the Nymex Henry Hub future (short term delivery).
EIA NG Storage Weekly Update:
The underground natural gas storage (Billion Cubic Feet) rose again during last week by 2.19% or by 67 Bcf; the storage reached 3,130 billion cubic feet for all lower 48 states; the current storage is 1.5% above the 5-year average but remained 7% below the storage during the same week in 2012. The latest injection was almost the same as the five year average and close to last year’s: During the same week in August 2012 the natural gas injection was 66 Bcf, and the five year average injection to storage for the same week of August was 66 Bcf. This week’s injection was mostly due to the Eastern consuming region, in which the injection was 49 Bcf.
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