NGI Weekly Gas Price Index

It was all trick for natural gas sellers and treat for gas buyers for the week ending Oct. 30. Trading was downright spooky with only a handful of market points posting gains and double digit losses being the norm.

Physical natural gas prices for the week ended Oct. 23 moved little if viewed from a broad perspective, but underneath the nominal change may mask something of a tectonic shift in U.S. and North American natural gas pricing. For the week the NGI Weekly Spot Gas Average slipped lower by just 3 cents to $2.28, but significant price shifts took place as major pipeline realignments start swinging into high gear and gas starts flowing from oversupplied eastern basins to Midwest market points.

Weekly gains in the Northeast, prompted by a late week $1+ surge at some points, along with a strong showing at California locations, helped lift weekly natural gas quotes nationally to a nearly dime gain overall.

It must be the calm before the storm, but physical natural gas prices moved little for the week ending Oct. 9. Outside of the Northeast most market points moved within about 3 cents of last week, and the NGI Weekly Spot Gas Average closed higher by just 2 cents to $2.22.

Amongst market bulls there wasn’t a dry eye in the house as weekly trading drew to a close Oct. 2. With the exception of a couple of New York market points, all actively traded locations followed by NGI endured double-digit losses. The NGI Weekly Spot Gas Average fell 21 cents to $2.20.

There was not a whole lot of black ink to be found in natural gas trading for the week ended Sept. 25. Only six points followed by NGI managed gains, and the NGI Weekly Spot Gas Average fell 10 cents to $2.41.

It was another lackluster week of natural gas trading as a comfortable late-summer warmth enveloped the country, and for the moment attention is centered on football and other fall activities rather than the vagaries of a winter heating season still to come.

If ever there was an opportune time for traders to take a vacation, this was it. NGI’s National Weekly Spot Gas Average moved all of 2 cents from the previous week to record a gain to $2.54, and most points stayed within a few pennies of unchanged. Several regions of the country showed no movement at all.

Traders wondered whether Thursday’s futures gains of nearly 8 cents may have signaled an attempt to break out of its longstanding trading range. Reality quickly set in Friday when October’s 7-cent decline took it all back. So went the week with losses offsetting gains, and the NGI Weekly Spot Gas Average added all of one penny to $2.52.