The "Beast from the East" forces Europe to pay more for gas

After the arrival of the Arctic air masses, called the "Beast from the East", to Europe, EU companies had to withdraw significant volumes of gas from storage facilities. Meteorologists predict the return of frost. The price of gas in the EU is growing rapidly.

On January 15, the price of gas in Europe rose to $ 405 per thousand cubic meters. At this price, current and February deliveries are traded on the TTF exchange. In Germany, the cost of fuel reached $ 413, and on the Austrian Baumgarten — $ 420.

Such prices in The European Union has not been since mid-November last year. In December, they generally dropped to $ 326. However, frosts in the first 11 days of the new year noticeably depleted the storages.

If before that the region, which pumped less gas to this heating season than to the previous one, consumed less fuel due to the warm weather, then in mid-January the figures already exceed last year's.

Obviously, even greater price increases are stopped by high and stable LNG supplies and imports from Norway. A year ago, gas quotes were at $540.

For Europe, the situation is worsened by the fact that meteorologists predict the return of Arctic air masses to Europe in the third decade of January.

As EADaily reported, according to GIE, in 11 days of the country The EU burned 8.2 billion cubic meters. On January 7 and 8, consumption reached almost 1 billion cubic meters per day. The reserves themselves dropped to 58.7 billion cubic meters. To make it clearer, at this rate, Europe will be left without gas in storage by the end of March.

Europe already faced lower reserves in mid-January, in 2021, but then the EU countries had Gazprom, which could quickly and significantly increase supplies. Now, due to sanctions and counter-sanctions, the Russian company supplies gas only via the European line of the Turkish Stream, and volumes have decreased by more than five times.