Posted on 03/25/2026 3:38:58 PM PDT by EnderWiggin1970
Major disruptions in Qatar (15% of global LNG) and Australia have triggered a severe natural gas shortage, far worse than the oil shock.
Gas prices have spiked sharply (Asia +143%, Europe +85%), with physical availability becoming a bigger issue than pricing.
Countries are reverting to coal, Europe faces energy security risks, and rising gas costs could drive fertilizer shortages and food inflation.
(Excerpt) Read more at oilprice.com ...
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Fear porn
Obviously. A 143% price increase in 4 weeks> is trivial.
/sarcasm
So when prices roughly double that’s not worth a news article? It’s just something to keep aware of rather than being blindsided in ignorance.
LNG is produced in many places and this shortage won’t last long.
i guess it wasn’t such a great idea for the German Greenies to blow up all of their nuke generators ... France, OTOH, produces almost 70% of their electricity from their nuke generators ...
Good for American producers
Oil price.com is a hard left commie website.
Didn’t the churmans just shut down their last coal power plant?
Didn’t much of Europe also shutter their coal-fired electric plants?
And now for the silver lining:
A shortage of natural gas just might give Europeans a glimpse of what life would be like if the Greenies have their way.
You can’t run an advanced nation on windmills and dreams, folks.
Yep. The US sits on so much natural gas.
“Oil price.com is a hard left commie website.”
Perhaps so, but then this little tidbit must have slipped by...
“...and politicians’ favorite boogeyman, CO2 emissions.”
Careful using the “D” word! Peter Dinklage may be offended.
“Didn’t much of Europe also shutter their coal-fired electric plants?”
looks that way:
Western Europe (typically including countries like the UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Ireland, and Scandinavia) has shuttered or dismantled a substantial number of coal-fired power plants over the last 10 years (roughly 2015–2025), as part of accelerated phase-outs driven by economics, EU pollution rules, carbon pricing, renewables growth, and national policies.
en.wikipedia.org
Exact plant counts are tricky because sources often track units (individual boilers/generators) rather than entire multi-unit plants, and definitions of “Western Europe” vary (e.g., EU27 + UK vs. a stricter geographic split excluding parts of Eastern/Southern Europe).
Closures also include full phase-outs in several countries.
Capacity retired provides a clearer picture: dozens of GW have been removed, with acceleration in recent years.
Key Highlights by Country/RegionUnited Kingdom: Fully phased out coal by September 2024 (last plant: Ratcliffe-on-Soar).
Major closures included Longannet, Ferrybridge C, and Rugeley (2016); Aberthaw and Fiddler’s Ferry (2020); West Burton (2020); Drax coal units (2021); and Kilroot (2023). The UK went from significant coal use to zero.
en.wikipedia.org
Germany (largest coal fleet in the region): Retired substantial capacity, including ~6.7 GW in 2024 alone and a cumulative ~33.5 GW by early 2026 (with many closures in 2015–2025).
The country announced a full phase-out by 2038 (earlier targets for some regions like North Rhine-Westphalia by 2030), closing older hard coal and lignite units progressively.
It had plans to shutter ~84 plants over ~20 years from the late 2010s.
bloombergcoalcountdown.com
Other Western/Northern countries:Belgium: Fully coal-free since 2016 (last plant: Langerlo).
Austria and Sweden: Coal-free by 2020.
Portugal: Last plant closed ~2021.
France: Closures like Le Havre (2021); full phase-out delayed but most coal generation ended earlier, with limited emergency use.
Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Ireland: Multiple plants shut (e.g., Spain closed several in 2020; Ireland’s Moneypoint converted/ended coal use in 2025).
Many countries completed or neared full phase-outs.
en.wikipedia.org
Broader European Trends (Relevant to Western Europe)In the EU27, coal capacity retirements surged: 11 GW in 2024 (4x the 2023 figure), with Germany leading.
Over the decade, coal generation dropped sharply (e.g., >50–80% declines in many metrics since 2015 in OECD/EU contexts), and over 60% of historical OECD/EU coal capacity has retired or is on track for Paris-aligned retirement.
globalenergymonitor.org
Europe Beyond Coal (covering EU + UK + others) tracked ~162 of ~324 coal plants closed or committed to pre-2030 retirement as of 2021—already halfway toward a full phase-out goal.
Many more closed since, especially in Western countries. By 2025, 15+ European countries were coal-free or near-zero.
mikebloomberg.com
Globally, EU retirements were part of a broader OECD decline, with coal plants averaging ~35 years retirement age (older in Europe).
Temporary 2022–2023 restarts during the energy crisis were mostly reversed.
globalenergymonitor.org
Capacity vs. Plant CountCapacity retired: Tens of GW in Western Europe (e.g., UK full exit, German multi-GW annual chunks, Spanish/Italian/others several GW each). EU-wide power-sector coal use fell dramatically.
Plant/unit count: Likely dozens to over 100 plants/units dismantled or shuttered in Western Europe specifically (hundreds of units Europe-wide).
Older sources noted ~300+ EU coal plants in the mid-2010s; many (especially pre-1990s units) have since closed. “Plants” often have multiple units, so unit-level tracking shows higher numbers.
“Dismantled” usually means full decommissioning (not just mothballed or converted to gas/biomass), which happened for many but not all—some sites were repurposed.
Progress accelerated post-2020 due to unfavorable economics for coal (high carbon costs, cheap renewables/gas competition).
beyondfossilfuels.org
Remaining coal in the broader EU is now concentrated in a few countries (e.g., Poland, with delays in others like Germany/Romania for security reasons), but Western Europe has largely moved on, with coal at <5–10% of power mixes in many places by 2024–2025.
Data comes primarily from trackers like Global Energy Monitor, Europe Beyond Coal, Ember, IEA, and national reports; exact tallies can vary slightly by source and inclusion criteria.
Natural gas in the USA remains quite cheap at $2.96 in the historical context.
Now for the Euroweenies who like their windmills and solar panels instead of coal and natural gas, they will enjoy their new prices for imported LNG.
“””LNG is produced in many places and this shortage won’t last long.”””
I suspect most of the LNG plants outside of Qatar and Australia are already operating at capacity.
How are they going to switch to coal? Power plants that burn coal have mostly been dismantled, and you can’t burn coal in a combustion turbine. Likewise you can’t burn coal in a gas or oil furnace. My family had a coal kitchen stove that they used until 1948, but not even the house that we lived in is still there - just empty ground.
How gullible are Europeans when China & India are building coal fired power plants at record pace? Last time I checked air has no national boundaries.
Now for the Euroweenies who like their windmills and solar panels instead of coal and natural gas, they will enjoy their new prices for imported LNG.
******************************
Good.
It’s about time our producers make some money off those arrogant deadbeats.
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