Gas prices in Europe reached $850 per thousand cubic metres

Moscow, January 9 – Gas prices in Europe on the first trading day of the week accelerated the growth rate to nearly 12%, approaching $850 per thousand cubic metres, according to the London stock exchange ICE.

February futures on the TTF index (Europe’s largest center is located in the Netherlands) opened trading at $773.6 per thousand cubic meters (+2%). And its cost as of 19.46 Moscow time was $ 846.6 (+ 11.6%). The dynamics of quotations depends on the settlement price of the previous trading day, Friday – $ 758.5 ​​per thousand cubic meters.

At the same time, on January 5, gas exchange rates in Europe fell for the first time in almost 16 months – since September 10, 2021 – to less than $700 per thousand cubic meters.

Experts pointed out that the drop in gas prices on the European Stock Exchange is linked to the rise in temperatures and the increase in wind energy generation. Bloomberg reported that January is expected to be the warmest month in recent years, and data from the European Wind Energy European Union shows that energy production from EU wind farms reached 31.6% of the total on Sunday — one of the highest levels since 2022. Weakness The annual average is about 15%.

Gas prices in Europe increased significantly in the spring of 2021. Then gas prices for TTF fluctuated in the range of $ 250-300 per thousand cubic meters, but by the end of summer they exceeded $ 600, and in the fall – already $ 1000. In the winter of 2022, prices crossed the threshold of $2,000 per thousand cubic meters, and in early spring, due to fears of a ban on importing Russian energy resources, they reached a record high of $3,892 per thousand cubic meters.

Despite the current decline, gas prices are more than double the average for a long history of observations. We have not seen such consistently high prices in the entire history of operating gas hubs in Europe – since 1996.