60-Fold Surge in US Gas Prices

Natural gas surged to 60 times the going rate, as howling blizzard conditions stoked demand for the furnace fuel across the US Northeast. Spot prices for the fuel used to heat homes and generate power reached a record $175 per million British thermal units in New York, according to Consolidated Edison Inc, Bloomberg reported.  That is a far cry from the $2.93 that US gas futures have been averaging on the New York Mercantile Exchange this winter. Other major trading hubs in New York and New England saw prices exceed $100, according to a person familiar with those markets.  Even if the rally cools as the storm lambasting New York and Boston moves off to the north, prices in the region probably will close in the triple digits, the person said. “This string of cold has stressed the market just as much as the polar vortex” of 2014, said John Borruso, director of natural gas trading at ConEdison in Valhalla, New York. “You are seeing pipeline restrictions and flow restrictions pop up.”