American companies producing shale gas are interested in maintaining high prices in the market (otherwise this method of gas production becomes simply unprofitable) and prefer to sell raw materials to the growing Asian market, rather than to Europe suffering from a shortage of natural gas.
According to Economics Today, the American magazine The Wall Street Journal spoke about how the United States influenced the frantic rise in prices for “blue fuel” in the EU.
“Asia has a huge demand for LNG, and consumers in the region are willing to pay more for liquefied gas than others. This is one of the main reasons for the shortage of gas in Europe, where reserves are at their lowest due to the hot summer, weak wind power generation and a decrease in the supply of raw materials from Russia”, the article says.
According to Samantha Dart, stock market analyst at Goldman Sachs, gas reserves in European UGS facilities are now 24% less than they were a year ago. In connection with the existing gas shortage in the EU and with the continuing negative trend, Dart advises American consumers of natural gas to stock up now, in order to avoid interruptions in the stands in the future.
At the same time, Christopher Loney of RBC Capital Markets is convinced that the globalization of the gas market is to blame. When, in the absence of long-term contracts, gas producers prefer to sell their raw materials at a higher price to new buyers, rather than serve old ones. It was on this that Europe got burned, which was sure that everything would remain the same.