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Natural gas rose 9% to $8.14 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) on Tuesday, its highest level since 2008, during morning trading on Wall Street.
Over the past two sessions, natural gas prices have risen more than 12% and in April were up nearly 30%.
Campbell Faulkner, vice president and chief data analyst at OTC Global Holdings, said in a quote picked up by CNBC that today’s spike is due to a surge in tighter market conditions, such as the European Union’s considerations of including Russian crude in a new round of sanctions against Moscow.
This Monday, at an special meeting of energy ministers in the European Union, the governments of Germany and Austria, so far reluctant to sanction Russian oil, expressed their readiness to adopt a new sanctions package that includes crude from Moscow, leaving Hungary as the only country that still rejects it.
For its part, EBW Analytics pointed out that there will be more demand for natural gas during the summer due to increased energy consumption by air conditioners.
In addition, production is down in the U.S. and there is 21% less storaged gas than this time last year.
When the clock on the Wall Street trading floor hit 12.30 local time (16.30 GMT), natural gas rose 7.33% to 8.02 dollars per million British thermal units (MMBtu).
The energy sector was the sector that advanced the most on the Big Apple stock exchange.
