Despite the energy crisis, European gas prices continue to fall. Gas is now as cheap as it was in February 2022, i.e. before the start of the war in Ukraine.
The new year begins with good news in the economic sector. Thanks to exceptionally mild winter temperatures, the price of European gas continued to fall. On Monday, the TTF futures contract for Dutch natural gas started trading at EUR 70.30 per megawatt hour. Gas is not as cheap now as it was almost a year ago.
In summer 345 euros per megawatt hour
In the morning, the price rose slightly, a megawatt-hour traded at 73 euros. Thus, since the beginning of December, the price of the TTF futures contract has risen by approximately half. If you look back last summer, a megawatt hour cost a huge amount 345 euros – a record. At that time, an interruption in the supply of natural gas from Russia caused prices to rise rapidly.
Low gas consumption due to high temperatures
The reason for this drop in gas is still the mild winter temperatures, which are having a big impact on consumption. No wonder: at the turn of the year, temperatures of up to 18 degrees were recorded throughout Austria. In Germany, New Year’s Eve was the hottest since records began. In addition, significantly more energy has recently been generated from wind energy, which reduces the consumption of gas to generate electricity.
Read more: First 18 degrees, then snow returns to Austria
Read more: “Too hot” – New Year’s Eve with record temperatures
Thanks to the recent very mild winter, natural gas is still being stored in Germany. According to the latest data from the European storage association GIE, the fill level across all German storage facilities was 90.12% as of December 31st. Gas reserves rose for the 11th straight day after falling for several weeks.
Unique navigation account Hour02.01.2023, 14:10| Act: 01.02.2023, 14:10