for week ending July 31, 2013 | Release Date: August 1, 2013 | Next Release: August 8, 2013
Overview:
(For the Week Ending Wednesday, July 31 , 2013)
- With cooler-than-normal weather across most of the country this week, natural gas spot prices at most trading locations fell more than $0.20 per million British thermal unit (MMBtu) since last week (Wednesday, July 24, to Wednesday, July 31). The Henry Hub spot price ended the reporting week at $3.46 per MMBtu yesterday, down $0.24 from $3.70 per MMBtu at the beginning of the report period.
- At the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex), the price of the near-month (September 2013) contract fell $0.25 cents, from $3.698 per MMBtu last Wednesday to $3.446 yesterday.
- Working natural gas in storage increased to 2,845 Bcf as of Friday, July 26, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration's (EIA) Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report (WNGSR). A net storage injection of 59 Bcf for the week resulted in storage levels 11.5% below a year ago and 1.2% below the 5-year average.
- The natural gas rotary rig count, as reported by Baker Hughes Incorporated, totaled 369 active units as of July 26, unchanged from the previous week. The oil rig count increased by 6 units to 1,401 rotary rigs.
- The weekly average natural gas plant liquids composite price (covering July 22-26) decreased 1% from the previous week to $9.47 per MMBtu. The average weekly Mont Belvieu spot prices for natural gasoline, propane, and butane all fell by 2%, and isobutane fell by 1%. The ethane spot price increased by 2%.
Falling power sector demand drove a consumption decrease of 6.5% over the report week. Consumption of natural gas for power generation (power burn) decreased 16.3% from the previous week, according to Bentek Energy Services data. The Northeast and Southeast regions, two of the largest consuming regions for power burn, registered week-over-week declines of 33.0% and 7.1%, respectively. This more than offset slight increases in power burn in Texas and the Southwest regions, where temperatures trended closer to normal and supported air conditioning load. Residential and commercial consumption increased 7.6% (though July is a month of minimal demand in these sectors), and industrial consumption increased 2.1%. U.S. pipeline exports to Mexico fell 3.5%....Today's action via FinViz:
