Gas in Europe is cheaper than it has been since the start of the Ukraine war. On Wednesday, the price of the TFF futures contract for Dutch natural gas fell as low as 76.18 per megawatt hour. But that is still around four times as much as in 2020.
Further easing on the gas market: The price of European natural gas has continued its downward trend of the past few trading days. On Wednesday, the futures contract TTF for Dutch natural gas fell to 76.18 euros per megawatt hour. European natural gas was last this cheap in February, before the start of the war in Ukraine. The gas price has been falling for eight trading days in a row.
Since mid-December, the TTF futures contract has fallen by around EUR 60 per megawatt hour. The listing reached a record high in the summer of EUR 345 per megawatt hour. At that time, a stop in the supply of natural gas from Russia triggered a rapid rise in the price of natural gas.
The main reason for the falling gas price is mild temperatures, which keep natural gas consumption comparatively low. Most recently, the temperatures were significantly higher than in the middle of the month, when there was permafrost in large parts of Germany. In addition, significantly more energy has recently been generated from wind power, which slows down the consumption of gas to generate electricity.
Thanks to the currently comparatively favorable weather, natural gas is being stored again in Germany. According to the latest data from the European storage association GIE, the filling level in all German storage systems was 88.62 percent on Monday – an increase of 0.41 percentage points compared to the previous day and the sixth increase in a row.
Despite the recent relaxation, the price of European natural gas is still at a comparatively high level. In 2020, the TTF futures contract was still below the EUR 20 mark.
