The price of gas in Europe exceeded $ 550: countries The EU is getting cold again

For the first time in 15 months, the price of gas on European stock exchanges exceeded $ 550 per thousand cubic meters. To countries The EU is cooling down again, which was previously accompanied by calm and provoked maximum gas extraction from storage facilities.

On January 29, the price of gas on European stock exchanges exceeded $ 550 per thousand cubic meters. By the evening, gas supplies from the Dutch TTF hub had risen to $559. This is the highest figure since mid-November 2023.

Meteorologists predict a significant drop in temperature in Europe by the end of the week. For example, in Germany, the thermometer will drop to minus 5-6 degrees Celsius at night. During the day, the temperature will be 2-5 degrees.

The previous cold snap in this heating season brought calm to the region, as a result of which the countries The EU has taken the maximum volumes of gas from storage facilities — 44 billion cubic meters and has already burned the reserves accumulated last year.

By April, the remaining UGS reserves of the EU countries may be halved — up to 30 billion cubic meters. And the region will face the need to purchase additional 30 billion cubic meters, and taking into account the stop of Ukrainian transit of Russian gas — 45 billion cubic meters. These are 450 LNG tankers, whose market value is now $ 25 billion.

Experts note that Europe will have enough reserves until the end of winter, but future additional purchases will lead to the preservation of high gas prices. They are more than three times higher now than in the pre-crisis five-year plan, when an average of $ 180 per thousand cubic meters of fuel was traded on German stock exchanges.