September 19 – Wall Street Journal (Ryan Dezember):
“Natural-gas prices have surged, prompting worries about winter shortages and forecasts for the most expensive fuel since frackers flooded the market more than a decade ago. U.S. natural-gas futures ended Friday at $5.105 per million British thermal units. They were about half that six months ago and have leapt 17% this month.”
September 20 – Bloomberg (Gerson Freitas Jr and Sergio Chapa):
“Natural gas futures have been soaring, and they’re set to get especially high in New England and California in the coming months. U.S. inventories are tight, to the point where a harsh winter could mean a supply crunch. Any shortages would have an outsized impact on New England, where limited pipeline capacity makes it harder to bring gas from Appalachia. Looking at gas for January delivery at the Algonquin City Gate, which includes Boston, the premium compared to benchmark Henry Hub futures has more than doubled from last year to about $13 per million British thermal units.”
September 22 – Reuters (Bozorgmehr Sharafedin, Susanna Twidale and Roslan Khasawneh):
“Global
record high natural gas prices are pushing some energy-intensive
companies to curtail production in a trend that is adding to disruptions
to global supply chains in some sectors such as food and could result
in higher costs being passed on to their customers. Some companies,
including steel producers, fertiliser manufacturers and glass makers,
have had to suspend or reduce production in Europe and Asia as a result
of spiking energy prices. That includes two of the world’s largest
fertiliser makers, which said they would cut production in Europe. The
UK… said it agreed to provide state support to one of the companies to
restart production of by-product carbon dioxide, which is used in food
production, to avert a supply crunch.”
September 21 – Financial Times (Helen Thompson):
“With autumn having barely arrived, fears of a European gas crisis are palpable. Global gas prices are higher than they have been during any non-winter month since they were crashing down from their peak in June 2008. European countries have been hardest hit. Natural gas import prices for the EU are up 440% on a year ago. With gas still central to electricity generation in most European countries, the benchmark EU electricity contract hit a record this month. In the UK, several small British energy companies, which had banked upon the relatively low prices brought by the American shale gas boom as a permanent turn, have gone under. If a gas crisis is coming Europe’s way, it has been long in the making. Since natural gas took off as an energy source in the 1960s, internal European supply has largely come from Norway, the Netherlands, and Britain. Most European countries have long needed to import a significant supply from outside Europe.”
September 19 – Bloomberg (Catherine Bosley and Isis Almeida):
“The deepening chaos in Europe’s energy markets risks undermining the region’s recovery and complicating policy for officials desperately trying to put the worst economic crisis in a generation behind them. Power and gas prices have rocketed in financial markets over the past few weeks as traders grapple with a shortage of supply for the coming winter. Many short-term prices are trading at multiples of their usual ranges and even longer-term markets for 2022 are sharply higher. While there’s a lag before the full impact hits households and consumers, politicians are already fretting about the effect on voters.”