Stats › Tradeable patterns › Gas calendar spreads
The widow maker gas spread averaged minus 5 cents since 2011
| What | Figure | When | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Record high March over April premium | $2.13 per MMBtu | May 2022, for the March 2023 over April 2023 spread | Reuters, 3 Jan 2023, trade press |
| Record low March over April premium | 10 cents per MMBtu, down 52% in a day | 3 Jan 2023, same spread | Reuters, 3 Jan 2023, trade press |
| First time April traded above March | April 2025 above March 2025 | Reported Nov 2024, storage 3,929 Bcf, 7.6% above the five year average | Reuters, trade press |
| The Amaranth spread, before and after | From "a high of nearly $2.50 per MMBtu" to "less than 60 cents", a drop of 75% | July to September 2006, for the March 2007 over April 2007 spread | US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, 25 Jun 2007 |
| The step at the next boundary along | April 2026 expired at $3.10 on 27 Mar, May 2026 opened at $2.89 on 30 Mar | 27 to 30 Mar 2026 | American Gas Association, 2 Apr 2026 |
Sources named per row. The two record values come from a single Reuters story of 3 Jan 2023 and no exchange publication confirms either, so treat them as press records rather than official ones.
US natural gas storage empties through March and refills from April, so the two futures contracts sit either side of a seasonal boundary. The realised difference between them has averaged minus five cents per MMBtu since 2011. The premium is insurance, not an edge.
Members only
The rest of this page is for members
Below this point there are 7 sections, 2 charts and 7 named sources, roughly 1350 words of it. Every figure carries the source it came from and the date the data is from.
You can keep browsing every statistic in the library for free. The intro and the summary are always open.