Norway’s Equinor sold around 30% of volumes from its U.S. onshore natural gas assets on a spot basis in January, capitalising on a cold snap that sharply lifted demand and prices, its chief financial officer said on Wednesday.
An Arctic blast sent U.S. heating demand soaring in January and froze oil and gas wells, cutting gas output to a two-year low and pushing some northeast gas hub prices to record highs.
Equinor owns stakes in onshore gas production in the U.S., with the Marcellus position in the Appalachian Basin on the U.S. northeast coast its largest natural gas asset outside Norway.
While the field is operated by a partner, Equinor takes delivery of its share of the gas and transports and markets the volumes itself, CFO Torgrim Reitan told Reuters following the company’s fourth-quarter earnings presentation.
The trading business usually leaves some volumes exposed to volatility by selling them on the spot market, he said.
“That was also the case during January. We held around 30% of our exposure to cash prices or spot prices,” Reitan said.
This meant that when Equinor sold some of its gas towards the New York region it achieved prices of “more than $100 per MMBtu (million British thermal units)”, he said.
Equinor’s marginal cost of U.S. production was $1 per MMBtu, Reitan said.
Prices have since fallen, with the benchmark Henry Hub month-ahead contract trading at $3.33 per MMBtu on February 4, after peaking at $7.46 per MMBtu on January 28.
In 2025, Equinor’s U.S. natural gas production rose by 27% to 809 million barrels of oil equivalent per day.
The increase was mainly due to higher Appalachia output following the acquisition of additional interests in late 2024 and increased operational activity throughout 2025, Equinor said in its earnings report.
(Reporting by Nora Buli. Editing by Terje Solsvik and Mark Potter)