La Niña: betting on the weather
US gas prices have perked up. Will the rally last or is the market setting itself up for another fall?
EL NIÑO helped knock US natural gas prices down. Now La Niña might help lift them back up. That's what gas bulls hope, anyway. By mid-June, the Henry Hub benchmark had risen from its late winter lows of less than $2 per million British thermal units to $2.55/mBtu, its highest level in more than six months. The forward curve looks even rosier. Contracts for early 2017 are trading at just over $3/mBtu - still low by historic standards, but a welcome relief for America's hurting gas producers. Signs that the US' record-breaking gas glut is at last easing are one source of strength. On the supply side, steep spending cuts and a dive in the rig count is taking the steam out of a decade-long run o
Also in this section
16 January 2026
The country’s global energy importance and domestic political fate are interlocked, highlighting its outsized oil and gas powers, and the heightened fallout risk
16 January 2026
The global maritime oil transport sector enters 2026 facing a rare convergence of crude oversupply, record newbuild deliveries and the potential easing of several geopolitical disruptions that have shaped trade flows since 2022
15 January 2026
Rebuilding industry, energy dominance and lower energy costs are key goals that remain at odds in 2026
14 January 2026
Chavez’s socialist reforms boosted state control but pushed knowledge and capital out of the sector, opening the way for the US shale revolution
