Henry Hub Natural Gas Spot Prices 2006

High levels of storage and a small drop in crude oil prices helped offset the upward pressure on prices from the cold weather.  On March 22, the natural gas spot price at the Henry Hub had fallen three cents from last week to $7.07 per million British thermal units (mmBtu).  This Wednesday's price of $7.07 was 18 cents below last year's level of $7.25 per mmBtu.

Shut-in natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico was 1.393 billion cubic feet per day as of Wednesday, March 22, down from its level on March 8 of 1.403 billion cubic feet per day.

The amount of natural gas in storage in the East Region decreased 1.8 percent to 934 billion cubic feet for the week ending March 17, which was 398 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.

Sources:  Natural Gas Weekly Update.   Energy Information Administration, Washington, DC.  Nebraska Energy Office, Lincoln, NE.

Note:  NA = Not available.

This table was updated on March 23, 2006.  Typically, there is one week between updates.

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