Volatility continued to rock the Mexican natural gas market this week as North American prices came under the influence of wildly unpredictable Asian and European fundamentals.

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“Rallying, volatile U.S. benchmarks are creating anxiety in Mexico’s industrial sector, where gas demand is more correlated than ever,” Wood Mackenzie’s Ricardo Falcón told NGI’s Mexico GPI.

U.S. benchmarks key to Mexico bounced all over the place Monday through Thursday, but they were solidly above $5/MMBtu for another week.

“The more inelastic gas-fired power generation seems comparatively less reactive to U.S. price action,” Falcón added. However, “fears of another big shock as that of mid-February abound.”

During Winter Storm Uri in February, natural gas in Texas was impeded...