Gas prices on European markets surged yesterday as Norwegian outages were extended again

After natural gas prices on European markets fell steadily in recent weeks, price volatility has picked up again and prices have been rising sharply since last Friday. The main driver was the extension of outages in Norway’s gas infrastructure, which are expected to restrict supplies for several weeks longer than originally anticipated. Even so, energy security in Czechia and the rest of the EU is not at risk, and gas storage facilities continue to fill.

Natural gas prices across European markets have fallen significantly since the middle of last December, mainly thanks to a relatively mild winter and high levels of gas storage at the end of the heating season. Prices continued to fall relatively steadily from the second half of April, after short-term contract prices dipped to as low as 25 EUR/MWh at the beginning of the month. Prices for next winter and for the year as a whole also declined, although not as sharply.