Natural gas prices in Europe continued to fall in the first days of 2023. On Monday, January 2, TTF contracts for gas from the Netherlands were concluded at a price of 70.30 euros per MWh. Experts note that the last time gas was so cheap in Europe was in February 2022 - before the start of the war between Russia and Ukraine.
The peak of gas prices came in the summer of 2022, when Gazprom stopped deliveries to the EU countries. The record price was 345 euros per megawatt/hour.
Moscow explained the interruption of supply with various technical problems and blamed the West. The Kremlin pointed out that the sanctions imposed against Russia prevent timely maintenance and repair work on pipelines. However, Europe was convinced that Moscow was using gas as a weapon. Russian President Vladimir Putin tried to put pressure on the leadership of the European Union. He hoped that fear of a cold winter and gas shortages would force Europe to ease sanctions.
Putin’s plan failed miserably. Since the beginning of December, gas prices have halved on average. Three factors contributed to this. Firstly, the EU countries were able to quickly purchase LNG terminals and provide themselves with liquefied gas instead of Russian. For example, gas storage facilities in Germany were 90% full as of January 1, 2023.
Secondly, in recent years more and more energy in Europe is produced by wind turbines. So-called “green” energy sources are playing an increasing role in the EU countries.
Thirdly, warm weather helped. In most EU countries, the winter was the mildest and warmest on record. In the same Germany, the air temperature in some areas was 20 degrees above zero! Such weather allows Europeans to reduce gas consumption.
Source: Fakty
