Gas prices in Europe hit highest level since February, rise 45 percent in a week

Wholesale gas prices on the European market continued to rise today. During the day, they exceeded 56 euros (almost CZK 1,400) per megawatt-hour (MWh), reaching their highest level since the end of February. They have risen by around 45 percent since the start of the week, the DPA news agency reported. Prices have recently been driven higher by forecasts of colder weather and uncertainty over supplies.

The price of the key front-month gas futures contract at the Title Transfer Facility (TTF), a virtual trading hub in the Netherlands, rose to as much as 56.1 euros per MWh today. It later gave up some of its gains and traded slightly above 55 euros per MWh. That was around four percent higher than on Thursday.

Prices rose by around 15 percent on Thursday. “We need to expect prices to rise even further once the cold weather we have recently been warned about sets in,” Lukáš Kaňok of Kalkulátor.cz told the Czech News Agency (ČTK) in response to Thursday’s rise. “Given the weather, we need to expect very volatile prices,” he added.

Concerns over supplies stem from the armed conflict between the Palestinian militant group Hamas and Israel, damage to the subsea gas pipeline linking Finland and Estonia, and the ongoing threat of a strike at Australian plants producing liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Last August, wholesale gas prices on the European market climbed to nearly 350 euros per megawatt-hour amid reduced supplies from Russia. They have since fallen significantly, helped by high LNG supplies. Gas prices on the exchange are now well below the administratively set cap in the Czech Republic, which is CZK 2,500 per MWh.

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