Skip to content

Natural Gas Buyers Hoarding Fuel at Sea to Prepare for Winter

  • Europe’s congested LNG import terminals spur floating storage
  • Ships are parked in sea off Europe, Asia and Central America
Bloomberg business news
Williams CEO: Lack of Gas Pipelines Will Hurt US Consumers

Energy traders and power utilities are storing more liquefied natural gas at sea, an unusual move to hoard supply for winter as the market faces a severe shortage.

Energy-starved utilities in Europe are parking LNG shipments off the coast in a scramble to replace Russian pipeline gas this winter. They can’t simply import the fuel into onshore storage because terminals are maxed out, and so are choosing to pay to keep the ship nearby.