The cost of natural gas explodes, and no one is doing anything about it
Natural gas prices are on the rise in the United States and Europe. Some of these prices are at new record highs. The impact in Europe is much more significant, where there is a supply crisis and there is a lack of alternative energy sources, thus sending the price of natural gas skyrocketing.
Let's start with the United States, where natural gas futures hit seven-year highs on new climate models that predict warm weather will last through the end of the month, coupled with continued concerns about scarce supplies from the Gulf of Mexico after Hurricane Ida stopped offshore production.
Gas prices for October delivery rose an astonishing 8% to $ 4.92 British thermal units (MMBtu), the highest since February 26, 2014.
Prices in Europe are also skyrocketing. At the base there is an offer that is missing. As we said earlier, Russia has practically halved its supplies over the years, preventing it from building reserves for the winter and sending prices skyrocketing. This is the example of Dutch prices:
The situation is no better for the UK where, in a time of low winds and natural gas used for general electricity, electricity prices have gone to the moon.
This energy crisis has no answers in the short term. It makes no sense to open Nord Stream 2 if there is no gas flowing into it. Are the Russians waiting for the pipeline to open by the end of the year, flooding it with natural gas? Or are there other reasons to send the European Union into an energy crisis? Green policy will have to be put aside quickly and both imports of liquid natural gas and extraction from the North Sea must be pushed to the maximum. Except that we do not want to guarantee a very cold winter for a few million families in the EU.
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The article Explodes the cost of natural gas, and nobody does anything about it comes from ScenariEconomici.it .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/esplode-il-costo-del-gas-naturale-e-nessuno-ci-fa-nulla/ on Thu, 09 Sep 2021 07:00:44 +0000.