Although the Henry Hub spot price fell slightly from $4.66/MMBtu last Wednesday, April 9, to $4.62/MMBtu on April 15, natural gas spot prices rose somewhat at most market locations this week, the U.S. Energy Information Adminstration (EIA) said in a report.
At the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex), the price of the near-month futures contract fell slightly from $4.586/MMBtu last Wednesday to $4.530/MMBtu on April 15.
Working natural gas in storage rose to 850 billion cubic feet (Bcf) as of Friday, April 11, according to the U.S. EIA Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report.
A net storage injection of 24 Bcf for the week resulted in storage levels 50.0% below year-ago levels and 54.3% below the 5-year average.
Active oil and natural gas drilling rigs totaled 1,831 as of April 11, an increase of 13 from the previous week, according to data from Baker Hughes.
The natural gas rig count decreased by 6 rigs to 310, while the number of oil-directed rigs rose by 19 from 1,498 to 1,517.
The weekly average natural gas plant liquids composite price increased for the third week in a row. The composite price rose this week (covering April 7 through April 11) by 2.6%, and is now at $10.20/MMBtu. All five of the components of the composite price increased this week. Natural gasoline increased by 2.7%; ethane, 3.2%; propane, 3.2%; butane, 0.9%; and isobutane, 1.6%.
Source: EIA, April 18, 2014