Articles tagged Freeze-Offs

Extreme cold that permeated much of the Lower 48 throughout the long Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday weekend and into the current trading week at once sent natural gas demand soaring and froze wells, causing steep cuts to production that carried into Tuesday.

Natural gas futures on Monday dropped further amid a diminished demand outlook, extending steady losses recorded over the first half of March. The April Nymex contract settled at $2.484/MMBtu, down 11.6 cents day/day. The prompt month has now lost ground eight of the past nine trading sessions.

Amid a seemingly never-ending wave of Arctic air that crippled infrastructure in the so-called energy capital of the world and across the country’s midsection, resulting in widespread power outages, natural gas prices continued to reach new heights in Oklahoma on Wednesday.

Natural gas futures soared Tuesday following a historic Arctic freeze that crippled much of the nation’s natural gas infrastructure as demand soared to unprecedented levels. The March Nymex gas futures contract settled at $3.129/MMBtu, up 21.7 cents from Friday. April prices lagged a bit, climbing 10.7 cents to $2.983.

Intraday natural gas price volatility was on full display midweek as traders assessed the impacts of a substantial, though likely temporary, decline in export demand and the potential for a more moderate end-of-February following some of the coldest weather in years. After tumbling to a $2.741/MMBtu intraday low, the March Nymex gas futures contract bounced and eventually settled 7.6 cents higher at $2.911. April tacked on 5.6 cents to reach $2.879.

Weather model volatility left natural gas traders flummoxed on Monday, with double-digit increases early in the session nearly erased by the close. With the frigid cold descending from Canada into the Lower 48 seen possibly continuing into March, though, the March Nymex gas futures contract settled 1.9 cents higher than Friday at $2.882. April edged up 2.1 cents to $2.862.

Natural gas forwards were up by the double-digits for the period between Dec. 24 and 30 as more sustained cold weather finally arrived, dropping temperatures, bolstering demand and causing freeze-offs in parts of the country.

Natural gas forwards were up by the double-digits for the period between Dec. 24 and 30 as more sustained cold weather finally arrived, dropping temperatures, bolstering demand and causing freeze-offs in parts of the country.

Multiple polar vortices with chilling cold have created freeze-offs impacting billions of cubic feet of natural gas production in the Marcellus and Utica shales over the last few weeks, and it could be months before production returns to normal, according to Genscape Inc.