Outflows of natural gas from the Permian basin were down for the week ending June 1 relative to the prior week, driven by lower outflows to the East and North. Outflows to the East averaged 12.9 Bcf/d, down 0.1 Bcf/d week-on-week. Reported outflows on Eastbound greenfield pipelines: Gulf Coast Express, Permian Highway, Whistler, and Matterhorn Express were all strong. Waha cash prices remain deeply negative but there was no major movement in prices indicating an outage. Outflows to the North averaged 1.8 Bcf/d, down 0.1 Bcf/d, driven primarily by lower outflows on ONEOK WesTex.
Source: RBN NATGAS Permian, Wood Mackenzie
Outright Waha cash prices averaged negative $1.81/MMBtu during the week according to data from Natural Gas Intelligence (NGI), which is up $1.67/MMBtu from the prior week. Although they are still below zero, this is the highest prices in the basin have been since February as pipeline maintenance season is winding down. The forward curve also rose as the basin is increasingly looking ahead to the new takeaway capacity. As seen in the chart above, outflows from the Permian Basin to the East are now tightly constrained, but this is expected to change remarkably in the second half of this year as Gulf Coast Express expands and Blackcomb and Hugh Brinson enter service.
