NGI Weekly Gas Price Index

Although on balance weekly natural gas prices were unchanged for the week of Oct. 20, try telling that to traders working the SoCal Citygate or constricted Appalachian basins.

In spite of a continued loss of seasonal heating load in key eastern markets, weekly natural gas prices managed nearly a dime gain overall. Breaking a string of two consecutive weekly setbacks, theNGIWeekly Spot Gas Average added 8 cents to $2.57. Gains were not great, typically a nickel to a dime, and all regions advanced.

With heating load falling below historical norms it became a tough slog for weekly natural gas prices to gain much traction, and for the week ended Oct. 6 only a few points followed by NGI made it to the positive side of the trading ledger. The NGI Weekly Spot Gas Average continued the trend from the week before and fell 12 cents to $2.49.

For just a four-day trading week there was enough activity to keep traders busy well into October. TheNGIWeekly Spot Gas Average gave up the prior week’s 14-cent gain to $2.77 and slipped 16 cents to $2.61 for the week ended Sept. 28, but things got really crazy early in the week when first-ever negative pricing was observed at congested Canadian points.

Both physical and financial natural gas markets were poised to make healthy gains by midweek, but the weekly Energy Information Administration (EIA) storage report stunted gains in the physical market, and pushed the October futures into the loss column for the week.

During the previous week traders were all abuzz about lost demand and its impact on prices as the NGI Weekly Spot Gas Average for the week ended Sept. 8 fell a nickel to $2.55. By the time this week’s trading got underway, however, traders realized that demand destruction might have been a little overblown, at least from a market perspective. That and forecasts of warmer weather prompted a turnaround, and for the week ended Sept. 15, the NGI Weekly Spot Gas Average rose 8 cents to $2.63.

Having to deal with not only demand destruction and production setbacks in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, but now also impending demand loss in the face of approaching Hurricane Irma, the natural gas market for the week ended Sept. 8 still proved rather resilient.

For the abbreviated trading week ended Sept.1, weekly natural gas prices in most sections of the country moved little in contrast to the devastating events that took place on the Texas Gulf Coast. TheNGIWeekly National Spot Gas Index fell 11 cents to $2.60.

Weekly natural gas traders for the week ended August 25 must have felt a degree of frustration seeing little movement in prices while much of the industry’s production and transportation infrastructure stood squarely in the crosshairs of the season’s first major hurricane (Category 4) and the first one expected to make a Texas landfall since Hurricane Ike in 2008.