European gas was last this cheap in February, before the war started in Ukraine. The gas price has been falling for eight consecutive trading days.
Since mid-December, the TTF futures contract has fallen by around €60 per megawatt hour. The list reached a record level of 345 euros per megawatt hour in the summer. The interruption of natural gas supply from Russia at that time triggered a rapid rise in the price of natural gas.
The main reason for the falling gas price is the mild temperatures that keep natural gas consumption relatively low. Recently, temperatures were significantly higher than in the middle of the month, when much of Germany is permafrost. In addition, significantly more energy is being produced from wind power recently, which slows down the consumption of gas to generate electricity.
Thanks to the relatively favorable weather at the moment, natural gas is being restocked in Germany. According to the latest data from the European storage association GIE, the fill level for all German storage systems was 88.62 percent on Monday – 0.41 percentage points from the previous day and the sixth increase in a row.
Despite the recent easing, the price of European natural gas is still relatively high. In 2020, the TTF futures contract was still under 20 euros.
(SDA)