Exchange gas prices in Europe rose by 30%
Exchange gas prices in Europe at the very opening of trading on Monday rose above 2,900 per thousand cubic meters and grew by more than 30%, according to the London Stock Exchange. ICE.
The nearest – October – futures (according to the index of the largest European hub TTF) opened trading at the level of 2810.5 dollars per thousand cubic meters (+26.6%). Prices reached a maximum of 2917.4 dollars per thousand cubic meters (31.4%).
As of 9:18 Moscow time, futures are trading at $2,733.2 per thousand cubic meters (+23%). The dynamics of quotations is given from the settlement price of the previous day – 2219.6 dollars per thousand cubic meters.
Gazprom said on Friday that the Nord Stream gas pipeline, previously shut down for three days for scheduled maintenance, could not resume operation due to an oil leak at the only running Trent 60 unit.
A spokesman for German Siemens Energy said the company did not consider the conclusion Gazprom’s technical reason for stopping the pipeline.
The downtime of Nord Stream deprives Europe of up to 33 million cubic meters of gas per day, or about 1 billion cubic meters per month. Such losses are superimposed on the previous reduction in supplies from Russia via Nord Stream and other routes by at least 8-9 billion cubic meters per month.
Since mid-June, Nord Stream has been operating with restrictions, and since the end of July – only 20% of its nearly 170 million cubic meters of capacity per day.
In early March, gas prices in Europe, due to fears of a ban on the import of Russian energy resources, updated their historical highs for four days in a row.
The Russian side emphasized that the decline in supplies was due solely to international sanctions, which caused problems with the maintenance and repair of Siemens gas pumping units. Recently, only one turbine provided work.
The price record of $3,892 per thousand cubic meters was reached on March 7. The last significant increase was in the second half of August. On the news of the three-day suspension of Nord Stream for maintenance, quotes reached $3,500 per thousand cubic meters.
