The extended and intense winter that Europe experienced, lasting from October 2012 to March 2013, gave rise to gas shortages across the continent. The unexpected weather conditions spurred a spike in demand for natural gas for heating purposes and caused the regional gas inventories to fall to historic lows.
Europe faces the brunt of harsh weather conditions
The experience of the previous year left the lesson that the European gas prices are highly sensitive to the weather conditions in the region. As gas inventories were worn down during this time, the weekly prices of natural gas were driven up. This price spike was aggravated by the pipeline outages from Norway, and prices climbed to an all-time high...

