by Wolf Richter
Wolf Street
Natural gas accounts for 42% of electricity generation. It’s feedstock for fertilizers. It’s widely used for heating. And 19% was exported in 2024.
The notoriously volatile price of US natural gas futures has been zigzagging higher since mid-2024 and overnight spiked to over $4.80 per million Btu, and currently trades at $4.52 per million Btu, up by 140% from a year ago.
Nearly 43% of electricity in the US was generated by natural-gas-fired power plants in 2024. Natural gas is widely used for heating by residential, commercial, and industrial customers. Fertilizer makers use natural gas as feedstock. Natural gas is used as fuel for city buses, drayage trucks, garbage trucks, etc. And the US has been investing in a massive export boom of natural gas, with exporters taking up 19% of US production last year.