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Overview: Monday, September 24, 2001 Mild temperatures and
moderate demand helped prices to decline gradually last week as markets
returned to relatively normal operation.
(See Temperature Map) (See Deviation from Normal
Temperatures Map) At the Henry Hub, the spot
market price for natural gas ended the week at $2.04 per million Btu, down 37
cents per million Btu from the previous Friday. On the futures market, the near-month (October) NYMEX contract
settled on Friday at $2.103 per million Btu – off close to 60 cents from the
previous Friday. The spot price for
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil
fell steadily from $28.85 per
barrel ($4.974 per million Btu) on
Monday to $ 25.50 or $4.40 per million Btu on Friday. Prices: Spot prices at many major market locations took a
downward turn last week. Prices at the
Henry Hub closed on Monday at $2.35 per million Btu, down 6 cents per million
Btu from the previous Friday, and fell between 3 and 17 cents each day that
followed. On Friday, prices dropped to
$2.04 per million Btu, the lowest level since November 1999. Similarly, prices at many locations
throughout the country fell throughout the week. At the New York and Chicago citygates, prices fell from $2.69 and
$2.39 per million Btu to $2.30 and $2.04, respectively. Prices in the west at the Northern
California (PG&E) and Southern California (SoCal) hubs climbed on Tuesday
before falling to $1.67 and $1.79 on Friday.
In the Rockies, prices fell below the $1 mark for the first time since
1998 as prices at some locations in Wyoming ranged between $0.83 and $1.10 on
Friday. These price drops have occurred
in part because industrial demand has continued to soften in the wake of the
events of September 11, and in part because temperatures remain mild throughout
much of the country. At the NYMEX, open-outcry trading resumed on Monday,
September 17, at 11:45 a.m., Eastern Time, for the first time since the tragic
events of September 11, with the price of the October futures contract for
delivery at the Henry Hub opening at $2.425 per million Btu. Prices declined throughout much of the
week. On Friday the price of the contract
for delivery in October settled at $2.103 per million Btu.
Storage: Net injections once again reached record-setting
levels, as the American Gas Association (AGA) estimated a 90 Bcf stock build
for the week ended September 14. That
week’s record-setting estimate marks the eleventh week out of 25 thus far in
the refill season that weekly net injections have been the highest in the
8-year history of the AGA data series.
As of September 14, cumulative net injections since the end of March
have reached 2,051 Bcf. Resulting total
inventories, at an EIA-estimated 2,793 Bcf, are 468 Bcf above stock- volume
estimates for this date last year and
just 12 Bcf less than the EIA-estimated high for this point in the refill
season over the past 6 years (1995-2000).
The total net injection estimate of 90 Bcf is 18 percent higher than the
6-year average, and all regional injections exceeded their respective
averages. The net injection of 10 Bcf
in the West region is double the 6-year average, while the 28 Bcf injected in
the Producing region is over 20 percent greater than the average of 23
Bcf. Net injections in the East region
were about 7 percent greater than average.
(See Storage Figure)
Summary: Moderate demand driven by mild temperatures and
softening industrial demand caused energy prices to fall throughout much of the
nation last week. Working gas
stocks continue to grow robustly, and
already exceed the highest levels recorded for all of last year. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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