NGI Weekly Gas Price Index

For a market mired in layoffs, bankruptcies and diminishing capital expenditures, weekly natural gas prices provided something of a breath of fresh air. For the week ended March 18, theNGI Weekly Spot Gas Average rose a solid 19 cents from last week’s dismal $1.46 to $1.65, and every U.S. point followed by NGI gained at least a dime.

It turned out to be more of the same for weekly spot gas prices for the week ended March 11. The NGI Weekly Spot Gas Average fell 5 cents to $1.46, but broad overall gains at market points outside the Northeast couldn’t offset the sharp declines from within.

Weekly natural gas prices may not be out but for the week ended March 4 they recorded their third strike and are now 80 cents lower than just three weeks ago.

How soon the oversupplied natural gas market can right itself and enjoy a pricing landscape sufficient to generate the capital necessary to maintain a balance between supply, demand, and reserve replacement remains to be seen. However judging by the behavior of weekly prices for the week ended Feb. 26, the industry is not there yet.

Natural gas prices had the trajectory of a coyote in a Saturday morning cartoon for the week ended Feb. 19. Not one market point traded in positive territory and after the dust settled the NGI Weekly Spot Gas Average was down a not-so-healthy 54 cents to $1.77.

Weekly natgas cash prices for weekend through Tuesday delivery got a big tug higher for the week ending Feb.12 as traders made sure the cupboard was full ahead of the Presidents’ Day Holiday weekend, which was expected to bring a fierce, but short-lived blast of cold and snow to major energy markets.

None of the market points followed by NGI were able to escape the cleaver of cascading quotes for the week ended Feb. 5. Losses ranged from as little as a penny to over $1 and the NGI Weekly Spot Gas Average fell 14 cents to $1.97.

U.S. physical natural gas prices for the four-day trading week ending Thursday produced mixed results, with small gains in Texas, flat California trading and small losses nearly everywhere else dwarfed by fall-off-a-cliff declines for much of the Northeast. NGI’s National Spot Gas Average for the week finished at $2.11, down 17 cents.

Last week’s 40-cent weekly drop in spot futures proved prescient and this week it was the physical market’s turn to play catch-up. TheNGI Weekly Spot Gas Average fell 15 cents to $2.28 and futures carved out a modest gain. The week’s physical market losses came in spite of a massive week-ending blizzard forecast to crush eastern and Mid-Atlantic population centers.