Commodities
LNG Price Surge Hits 3-Year High Amid Middle East Supply Disruptions
Northeast Asia's liquefied natural gas (LNG) price benchmark has reached its highest level in three years and eight months, putting upward pressure on winter electricity and heating costs.
The Japan-Korea Marker (JKM) November futures contract closed at $27.765 per million BTU, a 30.85% surge from a month earlier and a 71.55% jump from six months ago.
The price spike is caused by supply disruptions in the Middle East, specifically an Iranian attack on Qatar's Ras Laffan facility that damaged two of its LNG production trains.
QatarEnergy expects the damage to take three to five years to repair, resulting in 12.8 million tons of annual production capacity remaining unavailable.