Alex Steis

While much of the Northeast was still digging out following last weekend’s Winter Storm Jonas, warmer temps on the horizon for much of the country tugged physical natural gas prices for Thursday delivery into the red. Over in the futures arena, February natural gas — on expiration day –made it six consecutive closes in the black to go off the board at $2.189, up nine-tenths of a penny from Tuesday’s finish.

Thanks to increased coordination with natural gas pipelines in the region and individual electricity generator preparedness, PJM Interconnection has sufficient resources to meet expected demand this winter, it said.

The world’s first liquefied natural gas (LNG) powered containership, the Isla Bella, made its first journey through the Panama Canal on Oct. 30, just two weeks after shipbuilder General Dynamics NASSCO made delivery of the ship to owner TOTE Maritime (see Daily GPI,Oct. 19).

Well, that was fast! The Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Tuesday night released the October testing schedule of its revamped Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report, which expands its original three-region East, West and Producing classification to a five-region East, Midwest, Mountain, Pacific and South Central classification in order to better pinpoint where gas injections are taking place.

October forward fixed prices fell across the board between trading Friday, Aug. 28, and Wednesday, Sept. 2, as traders started to focus on fall and began to put summer temperature concerns in the rearview mirror. On average, points covered byNGI’s Forward Look dropped 4.4 cents and were brought lower by a falling Henry Hub October futures contract that dropped 6.7 cents from $2.175 to $2.648 over the period.

October forward fixed prices fell across the board between trading Friday, Aug. 28, and Wednesday, Sept. 2, as traders started to focus on fall and began to put summer temperature concerns in the rearview mirror. On average, points covered byNGI’s Forward Look dropped 4.4 cents and were brought lower by a falling Henry Hub October futures contract that dropped 6.7 cents from $2.175 to $2.648 over the period.

Amongst milder weather and the comfortable lethargy of August trading, the forward market as measured by NGI’s Forward Lookmoved up just less than three cents on average since the close of trading on Aug. 21. For traders at many index locations, the price of September gas seems to have already been worked out with the start of the month less than a week away. However, there is one exception.

Amongst milder weather and the comfortable lethargy of August trading, the forward market as measured by NGI’s Forward Lookmoved up just less than three cents on average since the close of trading on Aug. 21. For traders at many index locations, the price of September gas seems to have already been worked out with the start of the month less than a week away. However, there is one exception.

Despite a full roster of planned and already constructed pipeline projects aimed at uncorking the glut of supply from the Appalachian Basin, the average basis of U.S. forward market locations covered byNGI’s Forward Look for the remainder of 2015 came in at negative 3.3 cents during trading on Aug. 19. Said differently, the average price of natural gas across the United States is expected today to be 3.3 cents less than the Henry Hub over the course of September, October, November and December 2015, and the gap is expected to get much wider before narrowing.