Bidweek

Baseload natural gas prices for May remained under pressure relative to benchmark Henry Hub as bidweek trading commenced on Monday, hindered by benign weather and continued strong production levels. Weakness was pronounced in the nation’s midsection, according to NGI’s Bidweek Alert (BWA), with prices low across the Midwest and Midcontinent. Chicago Citygate basis was trading…

Baseload natural gas prices for April were poised to plummet from already low levels, with weather models taking a decidedly warmer turn as bidweek trading got underway Monday. Losses were stout in the Northeast, according to NGI’s Bidweek Alert (BWA), even with the region likely to see chilly weather linger over the next few weeks.…

Natural gas prices are set to remain strong for September baseload gas amid domestic supply concerns and surging global prices ahead of the peak winter season, NGI’s Bidweek Alert (BWA) data showed. The majority of U.S. locations escaped wild swings month/month, but the hikes to already elevated prices are noteworthy given moderating weather across much…

Two leading Price Reporting Agencies (PRA) indicated that the decline in reported transactions has leveled off in recent years, and they remain confident that the data received from the market is sufficient to determine published natural gas indexes. Representatives from Natural Gas Intelligence and S&P Global Platts each cited recent stabilization in reporting numbers and…

Natural gas prompt-month futures traded about a penny higher ahead of expiration Monday, with the market’s attention turning to injection season as weather models pointed to some lingering cold risks for March. In the spot market, changes were mixed against a backdrop of generally lackluster Lower 48 demand; declines in California and West Texas countered gains along the East Coast, and the NGI National Spot Gas Average added 3 cents to $2.43.

Hurricane Harvey’s demand-killing impact on the natural gas market has been apparent since the Category 4 storm made landfall across the Texas coast late Friday, but things could turn decidedly more bullish — albeit temporarily — in the days to come as demand begins to creep higher while production remains offline, some analysts say.

The number of natural gas transactions disclosed to NGI and other price reporting agencies (PRA) has been in an overall decline since the financial crisis of 2008, but there are reasons to believe volumes are stabilizing and problems will be prevented before they reach a critical level, according to NGI’s Patrick Rau, director of Strategy & Research.

Natural gas bidweek buyers looking out across the weather/storage landscape lost no time in locking in supplies as a previous storage surplus slid into deficit to both last year and the five-year average and forecasters were calling for successive incursions of cold, Canadian air. The NGI National Bidweek Average rose a hefty $1.11 to $4.31, and all points followed by NGI were solidly in the black, some by multiple dollars.

If February bidweek was disappointing, March bidweek was a disaster. February bidweek saw the NGI National Bidweek Average fall 23 cents to $2.23 and some points traded positive. No such luck for March. No points followed by NGI came anywhere close to being in the black and most points lost about a half-dollar, or more. The NGI March National Bidweek Average fell a gut-wrenching 63 cents from February 2016 to $1.60, which is also $1.50 below the March 2015 bidweek average.