January 2018 Energy Report Happy New Year to all! Good or bad; 2017 is in the past and let’s make 2018 a great year! This email contains the month over month comparison of energy prices as well as the monthly commodity settlement prices. If you have any questions about your energy and waste portfolio or for an invoice and energy audits, price quotes for natural gas, electricity or waste, please contact RJ Consulting today.\ Natural Gas – WOW and WRONG For most of 2017, the wolfs of Wall Street and pretty much every commodity analyst had natural gas by January 2018 between $3.50 and $4/Dth, especially with a cold winter like some projected. The wolfs came up short but it might not be for long. Last month my projection was, “A cold winter will shake the gas market and make $3/Dth or lower gas a number for the history books, and a warm winter could send gas prices down to the $2.75/Dth range.” Surprise! The frigid weather which is worse than what was projected sent prices crashing hitting the 2017 low set on December 21; just five days before the start of the arctic blast and the market rebound taking back $0.45/Dth in five trading days. The last week of December and the first ten days of January has some of the coldest and longest temperatures below freezing many states have seen in years; creating HUGE heating demand. Natural gas was the only commodity to settle the January contract down compared to December against the other heating commodities. The natural gas drop was mainly due to the increased rig activities and traders being very long on natural gas. The gas decrease might be short-lived as 2018 will start to show some of the highest exporting the US has ever done and is expected to increase each year. Over the past three winters, February contracts have always settled less than January but don’t think this will be the case due to this cold snap; we are burning a lot of gas! My projection for the February 2018 natural gas settle is