New York NatGas Prices Erupt To 20-Year High Ahead Of Polar Vortex

New Yorkers will feel the wrath of Old Man Winter today as temperatures will plummet into the teens and single digits by this weekend. Heating demand will soar as millions turn up their thermostats to stay warm. The result so far has been the largest spike in New York natural gas prices in two decades. 

Bloomberg data shows next-day NatGas deliveries via the Iroquois Gas pipeline that transports Canadian NatGas into New York jumped to $164.80 per million British thermal units (MMBtu), a 14x increase from Wednesday prices. This is the highest print for NatGas at the New York hub dating back to 2003. 

Earlier, we quoted Upstate New York meteorologist Ben Frechette who warned, “the coldest airmass on the entire planet will be over New England by Friday night – the only comparable air currently exists over central Siberia.”

Heating demand is also expected to surge in Boston. Prices at the Algonquin City Gate NatGas hub traded around $58/MMBtu, up from $12/MMBtu on the previous day. 

Despite the increasing heating demand in the Northeast, US NatGas prices slid another 2% to $2.40/MMBtu on Friday as traders overlooked the cold shot in the Northeast as mild winter across the Lower 48 has allowed for increases in NatGas production and storage.