Weekly Gas Market Review

In the last week the Nov16-Mar17 NYMEX Strip Average lost $0.159 to $2.819 and the Apr17-Oct17 NYMEX Strip Average fell $0.119 to $2.762. As of May 18, the National Weather Services’ 6-10 day forecast for the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic shows almost entirely above, their 8-14 day outlook shows a mix of normal and above and their seasonal (Jun-Aug16) forecast released May 19 shows all above.

On May 18, Jeff Johnson, a Certified Consulting Meteorologist and the Chief Science Officer for Schneider Electric projected that the Atlantic basis hurricane season would have slightly above average activity and that the activity would occur closer to land. He also noted that during most decades there are an average of 18 hurricane landfalls and that so far in the 2010s there have only been 4 hurricanes that made landfalls and none of them made landfall as a major hurricane but even hurricanes that are not major when they make landfall e.g., Irene 2011 and Sandy 2012 can cause significant damage.

On May 13, after adding 1 for the week, the natural gas rig count was 87- 136 below last year.

For the week ending May 13, working gas in storage increased by 73 Bcf which compares to injections of 98 in the prior year and a 5-year average of 91. Working gas in storage is now 2,754- 791 above last year and 795 above the 5-year average.