Once a week the Energy Information Administration, which is a part of the United States Department of Energy, gives an overview of the natural gas market and its prices. This week’s summary covers the dates from Thursday, September 13, 2007.
The EIA report states that natural gas spot and futures prices generally increased this report week (Wednesday to Wednesday, September 6-13, 2007), as tropical storms threatened to disrupt supplies and pipeline explosions in Mexico stirred concerns of supply security. Hurricane Humberto was still active near the Texas-Louisiana border at the time of their report, and Tropical Depression 8 in the South Atlantic is apparently moving toward Puerto Rico and the general direction of the Gulf of Mexico (where these storms might cause energy-producing platforms to be evacuated and supplies to be shut in). However, oil and gas companies have not yet announced significant shut-in production or damage from the weather.
On the week the Henry Hub natural gas spot price increased 32 cents per MMBtu (million btu) to $6.13. At the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), prices for futures contracts also registered significant increases.
The natural gas futures contract for October 2007 delivery rose 63.3 cents per MMBtu on the week to $6.438. Working natural gas in storage as of Friday, September 7, 2007 was 3,069 Bcf (billion cubic feet), which is 9.3 percent above the 5-year (2002-2006) average. The spot price for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil recorded yet another record high, increasing $4.11 per barrel on the week to $79.85, or $13.77 per MMBtu.
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