Gas price falls back to EUR 30/MWh, helped significantly by Ukraine

European gas storage facilities remain close to full capacity, allowing natural gas prices to fall to as low as EUR 30/MWh. A positive factor is gas withdrawals from storage facilities in Ukraine, where European traders transported gas at the end of last year's injection season. “Ukraine plays a key role in gas supply security in Central and Eastern Europe this winter,” Natasha Fielding of Argus Media told the FT website.

Europe has so far avoided another energy crisis, and nothing suggests that the situation seen during the winter months of the past two years will recur this year. After briefly rising to EUR 50/MWh at the start of the winter season, the gas price has returned to levels around EUR 30/MWh. European gas storage facilities, which were still almost 90% full at the beginning of January, have contributed to this.

As the Financial Times notes, gas storage facilities in Ukraine also play a significant role in gas supply security in the European Union. A number of traders stored gas there, particularly at the end of the injection season, when storage facilities within the European Union were nearing full capacity.