On top of Europe\u2019s winter, January weather has manifested<\/a> in the United States as well, leading to soaring electricity demand\u2014and higher natural gas prices because it\u2019s gas, along with coal and, in the notable case of New England, oil, that are covering the spike in demand. Per the Energy Information Administration, natural gas prices have jumped from $3 per million British thermal units to over $7 per mmBtu in a matter of days, when a lot of traders expected them to move lower or at least stay around $3 per mmBtu.<\/p>\n U.S. natural gas prices booked gains of as much as 70% last week, Bloomberg reported<\/a> this weekend, noting this jump came on the heels of a weekly price rise of 30% in Europe\u2014all while traders both in Europe and the United States were betting on cheaper gas. This means they are losing money, and it could be only the beginning\u2014because the weather forecasts include the possibility of an extended cold spell in gas-producing parts of the United States, including the possibility of even lower temperatures that, according to Bloomberg, could freeze gas pipelines, interfering with supply to power generators. Besides freezing pipelines, however, winter would also push international gas prices even higher.<\/p>\n Related: U.S. Natural Gas Prices Hit $6 For First Time Since 2022 amid Big Freeze<\/a><\/p>\n Traders who spoke to Bloomberg explained that the situation with gas prices was aggravated by the Greenland spat between the U.S. president and European leaders, as the prospect of a conflict drove all energy commodity prices higher. Gas traders who had shorted the commodity rushed to cover their positions, contributing to the price spike. Now, more short covering may be coming because it seems the bearish sentiment had a firm hold on the gas market.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone\u2019s in panic mode right now,\u201d Paul Phillips, senior strategist for gas-trading company Uplift Energy Strategy, told Bloomberg. \u201cPeople were writing off winter last week.\u201d This is an interesting remark, seeing as last week was the beginning of January, historically one of the coldest months in the Northern hemisphere. Yet a couple of warmer-than-usual winters appeared to be enough to convince a lot of people trading gas that all winters from now on will be exactly as warm\u2014and shorter than usual. Apocalyptic global warming \u201cno more snow in Europe\u201d predictions also helped swing the sentiment into bearish territory.<\/p>\n The situation could deteriorate further both in terms of prices and in terms of supply\u2014to Europe. Most of Europe, as grouped in the EU, has developed a heavy dependence on imports of liquefied natural gas from the United States. In fact, these imports have been breaking record after record\u2014until the flows weakened in the past couple of weeks, likely because of the squeeze that domestic U.S. gas prices were putting on LNG exporters\u2019 margins. So, Europe started<\/a> draining its gas storage at the fastest pace in five years.<\/p>\n The front-month Dutch TTF Natural Gas Futures, the benchmark for Europe\u2019s gas trading, jumped by 30% since the start of January, from $34 (29 euros) per megawatt-hour on January 2 to as much as $45.40 (38.65 euros) per MWh on January 23. LNG cargo arrivals, meanwhile, have been at less than half of the daily volumes withdrawn from storage.<\/p>\n The gas price situation is not about to get a quick resolution, even if the weather lets up in both Europe and the United States. Europe would still have to refill its now fast-emptying gas storage. The United States is seeing substantial electricity demand growth from the tech sector, and that will not change once winter ends. In other words, the demand side of the gas equation suggests higher prices for longer\u2014and that suggests that gas traders may be in for more losses.<\/p>\n As to when and how the gas market would rebalance, this remains an open question\u2014not least because there is not much gas storage capacity in the U.S.\u2014the world\u2019s largest gas exporter. \u201cIt\u2019s like a heavier and heavier person jumping on a trampoline,\u201d the chief executive of gas producer BKV Corp. told Bloomberg. \u201cYou\u2019re going to get more and more volatility.\u201d<\/p>\n By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com<\/p>\n More Top Reads From Oilprice.com<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wintertime in the Northern hemisphere is usually a cold affair spanning at least a couple of months. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":435976,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[45,49,48,16806,146195,146196,1688,44195,16741],"class_list":["post-435975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-gas","tag-gas-demand","tag-henry-hub","tag-manufacturing","tag-power-generation","tag-renewables"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/book.jpg\"\/)
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