Exchange gas prices in Europe fell below $2,220 per thousand cubic meters

MOSCOW, 6 Sep — PRIME. Exchange prices for gas in Europe at auction on Tuesday accelerated the rate of decline to 12%, fell below $2,220 per thousand cubic meters, according to data from the London ICE exchange.

The nearest – October – futures (according to the index of the largest European hub TTF) opened trading at $2,423.5 per thousand cubic meters (-4.7%) and fell by no more than 8% in the first hour of trading. However, later the quotes accelerated the pace of decline and fell to the maximum to $2,215.9 (-12.8%). As of 10.48 Moscow time prices are at around 2254.8 dollars (-11.3%). The dynamics of quotations is given from the settlement price of the previous day – 2542.9 dollars per thousand cubic meters.

Gazprom on Friday reported that the Nord Stream gas pipeline, which was previously stopped for three days for scheduled maintenance, could not resume operation due to an oil leak at the only running Trent 60 unit. A representative of the German Siemens Energy told RIA Novosti that the company does not consider Gazprom’s conclusion a technical reason for shutting down the gas 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.

Nord Stream has been operating with restrictions since mid-June, and since the end of July, it has been operating at only 20% of its nearly 170 million cubic meters of capacity per day. The Russian side emphasized that the decrease 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.

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 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.