Markets

Mexico’s first natural gas price index,released on Aug. 18, offers an initial but still limited view of prices in the deregulating natural gas market.

Physical natural gas prices for Tuesday delivery were all over the map Monday. Areas impacted by Tropical Storm Harvey moved a few pennies, but points in the Northeast and California showed stout weather-driven gains. The NGI National Spot gas average rose 13 cents to $2.69.

Mexico’s first natural gas price index,released on Aug. 18, offers an initial but still limited view of prices in the deregulating natural gas market.

September natural gas is expected to open 2 cents lower Monday morning at $2.87 as the market continues to grapple with the load-killing aspects of Hurricane Harvey. Overnight oil markets were mixed with crude oil easing, but gasoline soaring on storm-related supply issues.

Horrible Harvey, which stormed into South Texas as a Category 4 storm Friday night, is continuing to wreak havoc along the Gulf Coast, with catastrophic rainfall disrupting lives and shuttering the energy breadbasket of the United States. The storm was expected to continue battering the coast through much of the week, leaving the Houston-Galveston region swimming in more than four feet of accumulated rainfall.

September natural gas is expected to open 2 cents lower Friday morning at $2.93 as traders view the impact of Hurricane Harvey largely as one of limiting demand. Overnight oil markets rose.

Hurricane Harvey, a menacing Category 3 storm, was set to strike landfall Friday night with sustained winds of 125 mph, delivering a deluge backed by devastating winds and a massive storm surge to the Coastal Bend of Texas near Corpus Christi, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.

Natural gas September forward prices rose an average 4.7 cents from Aug. 18 to 24, a gain largely attributed to the current gas storage picture and technical indicators, rather than the monstrosity of Hurricane Harvey brewing in the Gulf of Mexico.

Traders of physical natural gas for weekend and Monday delivery had to not only deal with the normal tendency of buyers to only reluctantly do three-day deals when cell phones and laptops let them buy gas instantly, but also the uncertainty surrounding the impact of Hurricane Harvey on near-term supply.