Analyst: Katrina Could Send Natural Gas to $15 by December

Natural gas prices, which reached a high of $12.25 in futures trading Wednesday, could hit $15/MMBtu by the end of December, predicted analyst Philip Verleger, a visiting fellow at the Institute of International Economics and former director of the Office of Domestic Energy Policy at the U.S. Treasury Dept.

“My guess is the coming squeeze will equal or exceed the one in 2002,” he said in a written report on Hurricane Katrina’s impact on Wednesday. “In that year spot natural gas prices increase by 60% between August and the end of December. This year we can expect a similar if not larger increase.”
Rigzone