The drop comes as gas storage facilities are filling up faster than planned
FILE PHOTO: An employee of Uniper Energy Storage at the above-ground facilities of a natural gas storage facility, Bierwang, Germany © AFP / Lennart Preiss
European prices for natural gas prices fell to their lowest level since April on Monday after Germany announced that it is filling up gas storages more quickly than planned ahead of the winter season.
The benchmark Dutch TTF front-month futures fell as much as 16% to €286 per megawatt-hour, reversing last week’s surge of about 40%, while September futures dropped 12% to €297 per megawatt-hour.
According to Germany’s Energy Minister Robert Habeck, Berlin is planning to meet its October target of having storages filled to 85% already in September.
“Companies will then be able to withdraw gas from the storage facilities as planned over the winter to also supply industry and households,” Habeck told Der Spiegel Magazine.
According to a document from the country’s Economy Ministry seen by the media, liquefied natural gas (LNG) is also expected to be delivered to Germany through France after the nations resolved technical issues that were hindering supplies.
Natural gas prices across the continent have been rising dramatically recently due to decreased supply from Russia, outages in Norway, as well as increasing competition for LNG supplies amid the worst energy crisis in decades.
Concerns have also been growing that Russian energy giant Gazprom won’t resume deliveries via the key Nord Stream 1 pipeline after a three-day maintenance stoppage that begins on August 31.
EU governments have agreed on some steps to alleviate the energy crisis and have set aside nearly €280 billion to help businesses and households cope. The bloc is also expected to call an emergency meeting of energy ministers to discuss measures to combat the spike in power prices.
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