Steel Mills
February 23, 2014
Natural Gas Price Rise Good News for Steel Mills
Written by Peter Wright
The US is experiencing a revolution in the oil and gas markets. The spot price of natural gas delivered to the Henry Hub in Louisiana has risen by 50 percent since January 10th and was $6.55 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) on Wednesday, February 19. This is the highest spot price in over five years. At the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), the March 2014 futures price increased from $4.822/MMBtu last Wednesday to $6.149/MMBtu yesterday, the highest front-month contract price in more than four years.
Working natural gas in storage decreased to 1,443 Bcf as of Friday, February 14, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report. A net storage withdrawal of 250 Bcf for the week resulted in storage levels 40 percent below year-ago levels and 34 percent below the 5-year average.
