The Henry Hub, a pricing point for natural gas futures traded on NYMEX, is generally seen as the primary price set for the North American natural gas market. In mid-August the price for 12-month strips was very close to a 6-year low. The price is derived by averaging the monthly futures prices of the upcoming calendar term, i.e., if today is September 1, 2011, the 12-month strip would be calculated by averaging the futures prices from September 2011 through September 2012.
The graph entitled Natural Gas Pricing by Calendar Year shows current and historical pricing of the 12-month futures strips from 2011 to 2013. Historically, the cost of natural gas rises as the most active month of the hurricane season – September – approaches.