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    Bloomberg: Gas Price Jump Seen in Record Europe Stockpiling

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Higher natural gas may encourage European utilities burn more coal instead of gas, increasing pollution as the region aspires to be a world leader in cutting emissions.

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Bloomberg: Gas Price Jump Seen in Record Europe Stockpiling

Europe’s utilities are replenishing natural gas reserves at the fastest pace on record, risking a surge in prices as the region’s winter heating season looms.

Inventories in eight European countries were 14 percentage points below the year-earlier level on Aug. 26 after climbing an unprecedented 48 points since April 13, data from Gas Infrastructure Europe show. German day-ahead prices may rise as much as 61 percent to match the record set in February 2012 amid forecasts for lower-than-normal temperatures, according to Tobias Meyer of Gas-Union GmbH, a Frankfurt-based supplier.

Commuters brave the cold weather as they walk across London Bridge on March 22, 2013 in London, United Kingdom. The three months beginning in March were the coldest in the U.K. since 1962 and the fifth-coldest since records began in 1910, according to the Met Office in Exeter, England. Photographer: Bethany Clarke/Getty Images

Germany, Europe’s biggest importer of the fuel, is refilling storage sites depleted by the coldest spring in 26 years as forecasters from Weather Services International to Deutscher Wetterdienst predict colder-than-average weather next month. Higher prices may encourage utilities from EON SE to GDF Suez (GSZ) SA to burn more coal instead of gas, increasing pollution as the region aspires to be a world leader in cutting emissions.

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