Natural gas spot prices fell on Thursday and Friday due to the anticipation of soft industrial load over the Memorial Day holiday weekend, mild weather, and a second consecutive above-average net injection into underground storage. Industrial demand returned to normal levels after the holiday weekend and put upward pressure prices on Tuesday. For the week (Wednesday to Wednesday), the spot price at the Henry Hub rose 3 cents, or nearly 0.5 percent, to $6.36 per million British thermal units (mmBtu). The Henry Hub price was 9 cents, or 1.4 percent, below last year's level of $6.45.
The amount of natural gas in storage in the East Region increased 7.4% for the week ending May 27 to 858 billion cubic feet which was 105 billion cubic feet above the 5-year average. Nebraska is a part of the East Region (see map) which is a major natural gas consumer, particularly in the residential and commercial sectors. The industrial sector, which includes agriculture, is also a major consumer in this state. Most of the gas is supplied from the Producing Region with a fair amount imported from Canada. The Henry Hub in southern Louisiana is a major market center with interconnections for many of the pipelines that transport U.S.-produced gas to the East Region. Furthermore, the Henry Hub is the preferred reference point for prices for most of the domestic gas destined for the East. Therefore, market conditions and developments in the East Region and price movements and trends at the Henry Hub are usually highly correlated.
Notes: An archive is available. Divide the price by ten (10) to obtain the price per hundred cubic feet (ccf) or the approximate price per therm.