Steel Markets
February 15, 2015
Natural Gas & Oil Rig Analysis
Written by Peter Wright
Figure 1 shows historical gas and oil prices since January 2000. The daily spot price of West Texas Intermediate fell below $100 in August and by January 23rd was down to $44.80. By February 9th, the latest daily figure available from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), the price of WTI had recovered to $52.99. Brent closed at $57.00 on the same day. The price recovery is being influenced by the labor unrest orchestrated by the US Steelworkers union at the Gulf coast refineries. The USW represent those workers. Natural gas delivered to the Henry Hub in Louisiana fell below $4.00 in August, there was an uptick in November but since then the price has had an uninterrupted slide to $2.72 on February 6th.
