Global natural gas prices - statistics & facts
Natural gas prices are some of the most closely observed commodity prices in the world. This was especially true in 2022, when supply disruptions led to skyrocketing natural gas prices across various benchmarks, such as Henry Hub and Dutch TTF. In the years since, some countries, such as European Union member states, have tried to reduce their reliance on imports of this fossil fuel and make themselves less vulnerable to trading vagaries.
The same development was also echoed by Japan’s LNG price, which is touted as the global LNG price benchmark, due to the long-standing prevalence of LNG imports into the country.
The global volume of LNG trade has continuously grown in the last decades, in line with the increasingly globalized and interconnected market for natural gas.
As a warmer winter 2023/24 has left inventories relatively full, strengthened prices could see little fluctuations going into winter 2024/25, especially since geopolitical tensions in the Middle East have so far had little impact on the largest price benchmarks.
Securing natural gas supply in times of crisis and diversifying with LNG trade
As the EU scrambled to wean itself of Russian gas and look for alternative trading partners, the role of LNG as a means of transporting natural gas has grown in importance. Thanks to existing and newly constructed regasification terminals, the United States has become a significant natural gas exporter to the EU, which also launched an LNG benchmark price to further monitor conditions of importing. Following these reduction and alteration schemes, the European natural gas benchmark, Dutch TTF, fell notably in the winter of 2022/23 and stabilized at around 35 euros per megawatt-hour by mid-2024.The same development was also echoed by Japan’s LNG price, which is touted as the global LNG price benchmark, due to the long-standing prevalence of LNG imports into the country.
The global volume of LNG trade has continuously grown in the last decades, in line with the increasingly globalized and interconnected market for natural gas.
Household vis-à-vis industrial natural gas prices
Countries with a relatively limited natural gas infrastructure, such as Sweden, have some of the world’s highest natural gas prices for households. While the global average stands at around 0.1 U.S. dollars per kilowatt-hour, some countries in Europe, South-East Asia, and South America regularly report household prices twice as high. By comparison, industrial customers in the EU paid a whopping eight euro cents per kilowatt-hour in 2022 and 2023, up by 100 percent since 2021. In the U.S., prices for industrial customers also surged in 2022, but had stabilized by 2023.As a warmer winter 2023/24 has left inventories relatively full, strengthened prices could see little fluctuations going into winter 2024/25, especially since geopolitical tensions in the Middle East have so far had little impact on the largest price benchmarks.
