Gas prices in Europe fell below $2,000 per thousand cubic meters

MOSCOW, 16 Sep — PRIME. Exchange gas prices in Europe have accelerated the rate of decline to almost 10%, trading below $2,000 per thousand cubic meters, according to the London-based ICE exchange.

The next – October – futures (according to the index of the largest European hub TTF) opened trading at almost $2,150 per thousand cubic meters (-3%). As of 11.45 Moscow time, the quotes are down by 9.8%, amounting to 1997.9 dollars. The dynamics of the cost is given from the settlement price of the previous day – 2215.7 dollars per thousand cubic meters.

Gas prices continue to be under pressure due to the uncertainty with supplies from Russia. The latest explosive growth at the end of August was associated with the announcement of Gazprom about the suspension of the Nord Stream gas pipeline for three days for scheduled maintenance. Quotations jumped above 3500 dollars per thousand cubic meters and updated historical records of the settlement price several times.

In early September, Gazprom announced a complete shutdown of the main line due to an oil leak detected at the only operating Trent 60 unit. The downtime of the 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.

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 average monthly settlement price of gas in Europe has been growing for the fourth month. The indicator in May was 1030 dollars, in June – almost 1180 dollars (+14.6% in monthly terms), and in July – about 1805 dollars (+53%). Already in August, the figure slightly exceeded $2,450 (+35.7%). And on August 26, the estimated price even reached a record $3,507 per thousand cubic meters.