Natural gas prices in Europe jumped in early trading, hitting a two-year high, amid increased demand for the fuel due to cold weather, which threatens to deplete already low reserves. This was reported by The Wall Street Journal, according to UNN.
Details
According to media reports, the benchmark gas contract at the Dutch TTF hub rose by 4.5% on Monday to 58.25 euros ($60.17) per megawatt-hour, the highest since February 2023.
"Temperatures are expected to drop sharply in the coming days, especially in the UK, Germany and France," said ANZ Research analysts. - This is likely to accelerate inventory withdrawals, which are already at their lowest level for this time of year since the 2022 energy crisis.
According to the Gas Infrastructure Europe industry group, as of Saturday, gas storage facilities in the European Union were 49% full, which is significantly lower than the 67% figure for the same period last year. At the same time, a particularly high daily net withdrawal of gas was observed in Germany due to low wind power generation.
Recall
Earlier UNN wrote that the European Commission is seeking to fill natural gas storage facilities in Europe by 90% by the beginning of next winter. In particular, they want to do this to avoid a repeat of the situation in 2021, when Russian Gazprom left European storage facilities almost empty before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.