Waha natural gas prices hit a record low in trading for delivery on April 16, recovering only slightly since that date. According to data from Natural Gas Intelligence (NGI) the Waha price bottomed out at minus $9.52/MMBtu on April 16, but averaged minus $6.83/MMBtu for the week ended April 20. The key factor leading to sustained negative prices has been lack of takeaway capacity for high gas production. Overall outflows were virtually unchanged last week, with lower outflows to the East offset by higher outflows to the West and Mexico. Although it has not been confirmed by Kinder Morgan, it is likely that Permian Highway is currently experiencing flow restrictions because of maintenance or an outage. Permian Highway is an intrastate pipeline and not required to report outages or maintenance. Previously, Kinder Morgan voluntarily disclosed these on the Pipeline’s EBB but stopped those postings last year. Based on available flow data on connecting pipelines, however, it appears some capacity on the pipeline went offline on April 16 and remains offline. Overall outflows to the East averaged 12.79 Bcf/d, down 0.71 Bcf/d week-on-week, as seen in the chart below.
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New Low Reached for Permian Natural Gas Prices
Waha natural gas hit an all time record low in trading for delivery April 16, and SoCal Border also hit a record low as the extreme bearishness of the Permian spills over into other regions.
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Waha Gas Cash Prices Rebound as Maintenance Eases at Roswell, Elsewhere
As force majeure events at Roswell, NM and in Texas have been resolved, Waha natural gas prices have rebounded significantly week-on-week.
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Waha Gas Bears Continue Unabated
Natural gas prices in the Permian remained extremely low over the past week, as issues stemming from apparent low takeaway on Permian Highway were exacerbated by a smaller outage on NGPL.
