Global industry prices for natural gas by select country 2020

Switzerland has one of the highest natural gas prices for the industry in the world. In 2020, industrial customers paid approximately 64.9 U.S. dollars per megawatt hour worth of natural gas. This was considerably higher than the price of gas in natural gas producing countries such as the United States and Canada.

Determining natural gas prices

Like other commodities, natural gas prices are driven by supply and demand trends. In some instances they may also reflect developments within the oil market as both commodities are often produced together. Natural gas prices are volatile. Seeing as the consumption of natural gas is often without alternative (e.g. within power plants), short-term changes to supply and demand have huge repercussions for the market. Weather is also a common determinant of natural gas prices. Unprecedented heat waves in the U.S. have driven up electricity demand for air conditioning and affected weekly Henry Hub natural gas prices in the summer of 2021. In Europe, higher natural gas prices throughout 2021 have come in the wake of a colder winter in Russia, Europe's greatest supplier of natural gas, which has reported depleting stocks of the fossil fuel.

Natural gas demand

Primary energy demand generated by natural gas worldwide is highest in North America. Nevertheless, forecasts suggest that the Asia Pacific region will experience a doubling in such demand by 2050 and overtake consumers in North America. The United States is still leading a ranking of world natural gas consumption by country. However, China has increased its LNG and gas pipeline investment portfolio, which could see it becoming an even greater consumer in the future.