Looming Northeast supply shortage drives steady advance in winter gas prices

摘要

Natural gas prices in the US Northeast market area could hit their highest in four years or more this winter as lagging storage volumes and flat production are stretched thin by strong seasonal demand. Forwards markets are already bracing for the increasingly likely scenario. Since the start of April, peak-winter-season prices have surged at downstream hubs across the Northeast Atlantic Seaboard. At Transco Zone 6 New York, the December-January-February calendar-month average has climbed to more than $7/MMBtu recently, up from levels around $5.50 in early April. At Boston-area Algonquin city-gates, the peak-winter calendar-month average has climbed to the mid-$12s/MMBtu recently, gaining about $5.50 or almost 80% since the start of April, S&P Global Platts data shows.