Natural gas spot price (Henry Hub) continued its upward trend and inclined during most of the week, while the Henry Hub future prices (short term) ended the week with sharp falls. There are still concerns that the tropical weather in the East Coast of the US will affect the natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico; there were already reports of shutdowns; in the mean time the natural gas consumption in the US has fallen due to the power shortage the weather has caused in parts of the East Coast.
By the end of the week, the Nymex Henry Hub Future Price (October delivery) ended the week at $3.92/ MMbtu, and the Henry Hub spot price ended at $3.96/ MMbtu.
Here is a short review of the main changes in natural gas prices for the week ending on September 9th:
Natural gas prices 2011 August – Review and Analysis
Natural gas spot price (Henry Hub) increased during the week by 0.76% and reached on Friday $3.96/mmbtu; its average daily change was -0.96%, but its weekly average price was 1.42% below the previous week’s average price.
The Nymex Henry Hub Future Price (October delivery) slightly declined by 0.46% during the week, and its average price was 0.10% below last week’s average price.
The spread between the Henry Hub future and spot gas prices, i.e. future price minus spot price (if the spot prices are higher than the future prices its called Backwardation, if future price is higher than its called Contango) changed from Backwardation to Contango throughout the week; By Friday it reached -$0.04/mmbtu – i.e. Backwardation.
Natural gas prices chart
The following chart shows the daily changes of natural gas prices (Henry Hub) and futures prices (Nymex Henry Hub) in $/mmbtu during September 6- September 9.
The chart shows that natural gas spot price had an upward trend during most of the week, while the Henry Hub future price sharply rose on Thursday only to sharply fall the following day.
The second chart shows the daily percent changes of natural gas spot price (Henry Hub) started the week with sharp falls that continues to moderate rises throughout the week; Nymex Henry Hub future price rose during most of the week except on the last day when it decreased by 1.5%.
EIA Natural gas report – highlights:
The underground natural gas storage (Billion Cubic Feet) rose last week by 64 Bcf to 3,025 billion cubic feet for all lower 48 states – the highest stock level since December 31st, 2011; the natural gas storage is still 1.9% below the 5-year average.
The chart below shows the natural gas storage (weekly figures) and Henry Hub natural gas prices during 2011.
To sum up, natural gas storage inclined while natural gas imports, production and consumption fell during the week of September 2nd.
For the complete natural gas market report, see here.
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