The natural gas market cooled down during the week, as it didn’t present any clear trend to spot or future prices. Nonetheless, the Henry Hub future price (April delivery) closed the month on a rise as it inclined by 13.2% during March, while spot price increased by 9.7%; the week ended with the Henry Hub Contango reaching 0.04$/mmbtu.
Let’s review the main changes in the natural gas prices for the week ending on April 1st:
Natural gas spot and future prices – Review and Analysis
Natural gas spot price (Henry Hub) moderately decreased from beginning to end of the week by 0.32% and reached 4.32$/mmbtu on Friday; Its average daily change was -0.18%, but its weekly average was 1.5% above the previous week’s average price.
The Nymex Henry Hub Future Price (April delivery) also fell by 0.69% during the week, but its average price was 4.3% higher than last week’s average.
The Contango (the spread between the future and spot prices, i.e. future minus spot) for Henry Hub fluctuated throughout the week, but at the end of the week it settled at 0.04$/mmbtu.
Natural gas price charts
The following chart shows the daily changes last week in natural gas spot price (Henry Hub) and futures price (Nymex Henry Hub) in $/mmbtu. It shows how didn’t show a clear trend during:
The final graph shows the natural gas spot price (Henry Hub) and futures price (Nymex Henry Hub) daily percent change. It shows rises and falls of these energy commodities’ prices:
Natural gas storage, consumption and production – highlights:
Here are the main highlights of the recent EIA weekly report on natural gas and regarding the week ending on March 25th: the underground natural gas storage (Billion Cubic Feet) increased by 12 billion cubic feet or 0.7% increase, and reached a total of 1,624 Bcf for all lower 48 states.
Average Natural gas consumption increased in the U.S. by 23.2% compared to last week’s average consumption; the rise is mainly in the residential and commercial sectors’ consumption that increased by 41.1% during the week.
The chart below shows the seasonally of natural gas’s demand during 2010-2011:
In total, natural gas imports, storage, consumption and production rose during the week ending on March 25th.
[ratings]
For further reading (on this site):
Previous issues of weekly report:
- Natural gas prices shifted direction to a rise – Weekly recap 21-25 March
- Natural gas prices finished the week with rises – Weekly recap 14-18 March
- Natural gas prices zigzagged all week – Weekly recap 7-11 March