The natural gas market has reheated by the end of the week after it had slowed down in the previous week and the beginning of the week. The price of natural gas sharply rose by the end of the week, even though the recent injection to storage was higher than normal. Despite the recent rise in natural gas, the price slipped on a weekly scale. The latest EIA report showed a sharp increase in demand and a slight rise in supply – the natural gas market has slightly tightened, which could explain the rally of natural gas on Friday..
Here is a short review of the latest developments in natural gas market for the week ending on October 25th 2013:
Natural Gas Market – October Review
The Nymex Henry Hub Future (short term delivery) fell by 1.51% and reached by Friday $3.71/mmbtu; its average daily change was -0.29%; its weekly average rate was 3.68% below last week’s average price.
The gap between the NG future and spot prices – future minus spot – was mostly in Backwardation during the previous week.
Natural Gas Charts
The following charts show the changes in Nat-gas future (Nymex Henry Hub) in $/mmbtu during October 21-25.
As seen in the chart herein, the natural gas price (Henry Hub future rate) has declined during the beginning of the week only to rally by the end of it.
In the second chart are the daily percent shifts of the Nymex Henry Hub future (short term delivery).
EIA NG Storage Weekly Report
The underground natural gas storage (Billion Cubic Feet) rose again during last week by 2.38% or by 87 Bcf; the storage reached 3,741 billion cubic feet for all lower 48 states; the current storage is 2.1% above the 5-year average but is 2.4% below the storage during the same week in 2012. The latest injection was higher than the five year average and last year’s: During the same week in October 2012 the natural gas injection was 64 Bcf, and the five year average injection to storage for the same week of October was 67 Bcf. This week’s injection was mostly due to the Eastern consuming region, in which the injection was 50 Bcf.
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