At the start of the year, the European gas price continued its descent thanks to unusually mild winter temperatures. On Monday, the TTF futures contract for Dutch natural gas started trading at EUR 70.30 per megawatt hour. European gas was last this cheap in February 2022 before the start of the war in Ukraine.
In early trading, the price rose again slightly to 73 euros. It has roughly halved since the beginning of December. The record high was reached last summer at 345 euros. At that time, a delivery stop by Russia triggered a boom.
The mild weather is dampening consumption. At the turn of the year in Germany there were regional temperatures of over 20 degrees. The German weather service recorded the warmest New Year’s day since records began. In addition, significantly more energy has recently been generated from wind power, which reduces the consumption of gas to generate electricity.
Gas is also stored in Germany. According to the European storage association GIE, the filling level in all German storage facilities was 90.12 percent on New Year’s Eve. The reserves have increased for the eleventh day in a row.
According to a forecast by Economics Minister Habeck, we will have to endure higher gas prices for another year. Energy expert Frank Umbach considers this forecast to be daring and explains why here.
Source: WORLD | Nele Wuerzbach
