[BrianC]

Natural-gas Prices Are Spiking Around the World (economist.com) 32
Posted by msmash on Thursday September 30, 2021 @12:30PM from the closer-look dept.
Across the world, a natural-gas shortage is starting to bite. Prices of power in Germany and France have soared by around 40% in the past two weeks. In many countries, including Britain and Spain, governments are rushing through emergency measures to protect consumers. Economist:
Factories are being temporarily switched off, from aluminium smelters in Mexico to fertiliser plants in Britain. Markets are frantic. One trader says it is like the global financial crisis for commodities. Even in America, the world's biggest natural-gas producer, lobby groups are calling on the government to limit exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG), the price of which has climbed to $25 per million British thermal units (mBTU), up by two-thirds in the past month. In one sense the crisis has fiendishly complex causes, with a mosaic of factors from geopolitics to precautionary hoarding in Asia sending prices higher. Viewed from a different perspective, however, its causes are simple: an energy market with only thin safety buffers has become acutely sensitive to disruptions. And subdued investment in fossil fuels may mean higher volatility is here to stay.

The shortfall has taken almost everyone by surprise. In 2019 there was plenty of gas on the international market, thanks to new LNG plants coming online in America (see chart). When the covid pandemic struck and lockdown constrained demand, much of the excess gas went into storage in Europe. That came in handy last winter, which was particularly cold in northern Asia and Europe. The freeze pushed up demand for heating. In Asia gas prices quadrupled in three months. Buyers, such as national gas companies, looked to the LNG market to fill out supply. Many Europe-destined cargoes were diverted to Asia. Europe, by contrast, drew down on its reserves. Prices there only inched up. This year odd weather has featured again. A hot summer has added to booming gas demand in Asia. The region accounts for almost three-quarters of global LNG imports, according to AllianceBernstein, a financial firm.
https://www.economist.com/finance-and-e ... d/21804953

[Pops]

One of the components of the magic fracking revolution has been NGL, specifically ethane, Ethane is where plastics come form and US consumption and exports of ethane have doubled in the last ten years, we're shipping a million barrels a day somewhere so we can import those ultra-heavy clamshell boxes that iceburg lettuce is sold in. Gotta wonder how much embodied energy is represented in one of those containers compared to the salad.

What the fracking glut has done is to not only expose us to the world's markets when importing fossils, its also exposed us to the world market as competitor to our domestic production.

Saudi America, LOL

[AdamB]

Saudi America, LOL

LOL indeed. Remember when Hubbert was the last word on the topic? And the fools...they came a flockin'.