Oil Soars as Looming Natural Gas Shortage Threatens US Consumers

West Texas Intermediate crude oil is on the rise again, reaching $82.47 per barrel and up 5.5% from a month ago.

Brent settled near $88.44, while the national average for regular gasoline remains at $4.01 a gallon, a $1.29 increase in four weeks.

While this is the visible part of the story, a looming natural gas shortage could hit US consumers even harder.

Matt Smith, a limited partner at Chronometer Partners, predicts that the United States will face a natural gas shortage by 2028 and exhaust storage by 2030 due to increasing liquefied natural gas exports and AI data center demand colliding with a finite pipeline system.