The natural gas market continued to slowly recover this week as the price has slightly increased again mainly during the first part of the week. The moderate increase in prices was despite the decline in demand for natural gas in the power sector during last week; the demand for natural gas in the residential/commercial slightly decreased – the total demand fell; the supply inched down. Based on the EIA natural gas storage weekly report, natural gas storage buildup was 57 Bcf, which was close to the five year average injection and higher than last year’s injection.
Here is a short recap of the latest changes in natural gas market for the week ending on August 24th 2013:
Natural Gas Market – August Review
During the previous week, the Nymex Henry Hub Future (short term delivery) increased by 3.47% and reached by Friday $3.49/mmbtu; its average daily change was 0.71%; its weekly average rate was 4.20% above last week’s average rate.
The gap between the NG future and spot prices – future minus spot – was mostly in Contango during last week.
Natural Gas Charts
The following charts shows the changes in Nat Gas future (Nymex Henry Hub) in $/mmbtu during August 19-23.
As seen in the chart herein, the natural gas price (Henry Hub future rate) rallied during most of last week until it fell down on Friday.
In the second chart are the daily percent shifts of the Nymex Henry Hub future (short term delivery).
EIA NG Storage Weekly Update:
The underground natural gas storage (Billion Cubic Feet) increased again during last week by 1.90% or by 57 Bcf; the storage reached 3,063 billion cubic feet for all lower 48 states; the current storage is 1.5% above the 5-year average but remained 7.2% below the storage during the same week in 2012. The recent injection was almost the same as the five year average and higher than last year’s: During the same week in August 2012 the natural gas injection was 47 Bcf, and the five year average injection to storage for the same week of August was again 42 Bcf. This week’s injection was mostly due to the Eastern consuming region, in which the injection was 47 Bcf.
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