Natural gas markets are inherently complex - highly regional, structurally nuanced, and driven by a diverse range of physical and financial contract types. Trading spans a wide spectrum of delivery terms, instruments, and pricing mechanisms.
Yet despite this complexity, many existing price benchmarks rely on narrow datasets. They often miss meaningful volumes of activity, especially brokered transactions that fall outside conventional price-reporting frameworks. This results in benchmarks that may not fully represent true market conditions.
The need for better price transparency
To address these challenges, General Index (GX) has launched ~800 new U.S. Natural Gas Price Benchmarks, covering over 100 physical gas locations.
Developed in close partnership with brokers and active market participants, these benchmarks capture real, verifiable trades as well as live bids, offers, and supply flows. This provides a more complete and timely picture of daily market dynamics, enabling General Index to deliver high-value data that truly reflects the pulse of the natural gas market.
Our new price indexes include a broad spectrum of market-relevant data:
- Next Day Physical (Fixed Price) Indexes – buying or selling physical natural gas flow for the next gas day at a fixed locked-in price.
- Bid-week prices - market set differential between regional gas hubs during the last 5 business days of the month, used to price next-month physical gas deliveries.
There is a growing need for pricing solutions that are more transparent, cost-effective, and reflective of real market activity. Market participants consistently highlight the demand for more reliable and affordable reference prices, broader coverage - particularly in less visible or underserved locations - and better tools to support hedging, risk management, and contract negotiations.
By working closely with brokers and traders, GX captures broader deal flow than incumbent providers, giving market participants more confidence in the prices they rely on every day.
Delivering value for all market participants
Our indexes deliver value across the natural gas market ecosystem:
- Traders & Marketers – for price discovery and to benchmark both classic and new-energy commodities especially where liquidity is thin or localized.
- Risk Managers – who rely on transparent benchmarks for hedging and managing exposure for MTM, hedging, and valuation using robust, auditable benchmarks.
- Analysts & Consultants – who integrate the data into market models for forecasting, strategy, advisory work and strategic recommendations.
- Utilities & LDCs (Local Distribution Companies) – who need reliable pricing for procurement and customer rate-setting aligned with physical market realities.
- Industrial End-Users – who purchase large volumes of gas and need competitive pricing to manage operational costs.
- Financial Institutions & Funds – who trade gas-linked derivatives and require trustworthy pricing inputs for exposure management.
- Storage Operators – who use the data to value injection/withdrawal decisions and support financial hedging.
- Regulators & Policymakers – for market monitoring and transparency purposes, setting tariffs, economic modelling and energy security planning.
Separating prices by physical vs. financial, fixed vs. basis, and delivered vs. non-delivered contracts enables precise spread analysis, asset optimization, and tailored risk or compliance workflows.
As regulatory requirements for traceability continue to tighten, GX’s transparent input logic provides audit-ready support for procurement, trading, and reporting - while delivering reliable pricing and real-time market intelligence
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