Natural gas whiplash

What this episode covers

Anne-Sophie Corbeau, a research scholar at Columbia University’s SIPA Center on Global Energy Policy and former head of gas analysis at BP, explains the extreme volatility of European natural gas prices from 2020 to 2023. She details how a combination of pandemic-induced demand drops, abnormal weather, supply constraints, and Russia’s post-invasion cuts drove prices to record highs, before a warm winter and muted Chinese demand caused a sharp correction. Corbeau argues that despite current low prices, structural tightness in global LNG markets and reduced Russian pipeline infrastructure mean Europe remains vulnerable to future price spikes and must accelerate the transition to renewables and heat pumps.