The natural gas market continued to slowly cool down as the price of Henry Hub sharply fell mainly during the first part of last week. The latest movement in prices was despite the decline in demand for natural gas – mainly in the power sector; the supply also decreased mainly due to drop in dry production and imports from Canada. According to the EIA natural gas storage weekly update, natural gas storage buildup was 87 Bcf, which was slightly higher than the five year average injection and last year’s injection.
Here is a short review of the latest shifts in natural gas market for the week ending on September 27th 2013:
Natural Gas Market – September Recap
The Nymex Henry Hub Future (short term delivery) declined again by 2.66% and reached by Friday $3.59/mmbtu; its average daily change was -0.52%; its weekly average rate was 4.99% above last week’s average rate.
The spread between the NG future and spot prices – future minus spot – shifted from Contango to Backwardation during last week.
Natural Gas Charts
The following charts present the shifts in Nat-gas future (Nymex Henry Hub) in $/mmbtu during September 23-27.
As seen in the chart herein, the natural gas price (Henry Hub future rate) has slowly declined during last week mostly at the last couple of days.
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) increased again during last week by 2.64% or by 87 Bcf; the storage reached 3,386 billion cubic feet for all lower 48 states; the current storage is 0.90% above the 5-year average but is also 5% below the storage during the same week in 2012. The recent injection was higher than the five year average and last year’s: During the same week in September 2012 the natural gas injection was 80 Bcf, and the five year average injection to storage for the same week of September was 77 Bcf. This week’s injection was mostly due to the Eastern consuming region, in which the injection was 54 Bcf.
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