Daily Market Update May 14, 2018

Early Morning Update

The Jun18 natural gas contract is trading up $0.02 at $2.82. The Jun18 crude contract is up $0.10 at $70.80.

Summary

After a bumpy Thursday, the market settled right back down and the prompt month closed nearly flat, down only $.008 to finish the week at $2.806.  On the week though, the prompt month moved up $.09, with almost all of the move occurring on Thursday.  A couple of things to watch out for as we move through May: 1. Weather forecasts continue to show above-average temperatures through the first few days of June.  A hot start to summer is likely to lead to increased NG demand.  2.  Capacity tag season is upon us - and a hot start to summer could mean that capacity obligations are set earlier in the summer (like Nepool last year).  3.  NG production appears to have stagnated, at least for the time being.  We have been hovering around 78 Bcf/d for many weeks now and if we see prolonged extreme heat, demand will be higher meaning there is potential for lower builds into storage.

Market Update 051418