February spot gas prices fall steeply YOY in 3 regions of US

The average price of natural gas for day-ahead delivery decreased 81.9% year over year in the U.S. Mid-Continent region in February, the largest decline among U.S. regions for the month.

Average gas prices rose from the prior month to $4.540/MMBtu in the Mid-Continent and the Gulf Coast.

The Northeast recorded a 24.6% decrease month over month to an average of $6.754/MMBtu. The Northeast region's spot gas price index was the only one to have dropped between January and February. Despite the decrease, the average spot price index in the region was higher than year-ago levels by 29.9%.

The West saw a yearly loss of 66.3% to a spot price index of $4.579/MMBtu. Month over month, the region reported an increase of 1.7%.

Gas hubs in the Mid-Continent posted year-over-year gains as high as 16.2% and losses as large as 75.9% in February. All of the hubs recorded spot gas price indexes that ended up near the $4.5/MMBtu mark. The NNG Ventura gas hub reported the highest index at $4.670/MMBtu, even though it also posted the highest loss among the gas hubs year over year.

On the supply side, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its monthly "Drilling Productivity Report" released Feb. 14 that it expected all the shale gas-producing regions in the country except the Anadarko Basin to post production increases in March.

Gas production in Appalachia, the largest shale gas-producing region in the U.S., is anticipated to increase from 35.72 Bcf/d in February to 35.83 Bcf/d in March. The Haynesville region is forecast to grow production from about 14.29 Bcf/d in February to 14.47 Bcf/d in March. The EIA projected total U.S. shale gas production to climb from 91.19 Bcf/d in February to 91.69 Bcf/d in March.

Market prices and included industry data are current as of the time of publication and are subject to change. For more detailed market data, including power and natural gas index prices as well as forwards and futures, visit our Commodities pages.

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