Bidweek

Bidweek traders had plenty to mull as they locked in their February prices. On the one hand, a hefty close to the February futures contract appeared decidedly bullish on the arrival of strong heating demand to close out the winter. On the other, a whiplash reversal in the March contract suggested a market already discounting hefty January storage withdrawals, thanks to record-setting production numbers.

Winter’s arctic freeze along the East Coast and the Midwest was enough to overcome lingering December weakness in the rest of the country, promoting NGI’s January Bidweek National Average price by 24 cents to $3.36/MMBtu.

Winter has arrived for the natural gas markets, as evidenced by the broad gains in NGI’s December Bidweek Survey, where the National Average jumped 59 cents month/month to $3.12/MMBtu, which is also a mere 8 cents below December 2016’s $3.20/MMBtu.

Natural gas bidweek trading for November was a study in contrasts, with double-digit losses in the nation’s midsection balanced by hefty gains in Appalachia, the Northeast, Rockies and California.

There was plenty of market activity to keep bidweek traders busy as they put October deals to bed, but outside of Appalachia, the Rocky Mountains and California, bidweek quotes showed only nominal declines of a few pennies. The NGI October National Bidweek Average fell 10 cents to $2.54 from September Bidweek, and represents a mere 3-cent premium over the NGI October 2016 National Bidweek Average of $2.51.

September bidweek trading stood in stark contrast to the chaos and destruction Hurricane Harvey wreaked on the Texas Gulf Coast as prices moved little and most points outside of the Northeast were confined to changes of a few pennies either side of even.

End-of-August bidweek weather forecasts cooled substantially, sending the now spot September futures down sharply. For its part, bidweek quotes came in about a dime lower at most locations.

July natural gas bidweek prices swooned across a broad front as traders keyed off of a lack of weather developments and elected to follow conventional trading patterns.

What a difference a few days can make.