Falling gas prices are occurring despite the almost complete shutdown of wind power generation in Europe and severe heat waves. Due to the mass use of air conditioners, electricity consumption is increasing.
According to neftegaz.ru , August gas futures at one of the largest hubs TTF (Netherlands) in the morning of July 25 were trading at 32.075 euros/MWh or $399.3 per 1,000 cubic meters.
The ExPro publication cites the reasons for the decline in gas quotations. First of all, the resumption of pipeline gas supplies from Norway after the completion of maintenance at the Troll field had an impact. Also, 18 tankers with liquefied gas are expected to arrive in Europe in the next two weeks, which also encourages traders and knocks down prices.
Despite the practical shutdown of wind farms, ExPro also notes a decline in demand for gas for power generation. The growth of electricity production by nuclear power plants and solar parks is having an impact.
This situation contributes to the active filling of European gas storage facilities with fuel for the winter period. As of July 23, the storage facilities were 66% full, with 70.6 billion m3 of gas already pumped into them.
However, the reserves of the EU countries are formed unevenly. While Italy’s storage facilities are 78.01% full, France’s – 73.74% and Austria’s – 70.97%, Germany, one of the largest gas consumers, is only 58.17% full so far
The European Commission has set the task to ensure that gas storages are filled to 90% by the beginning of November. In order to achieve this result, it is necessary to inject another 25.53 billion cubic meters of gas. Taking into account the fact that these days Europe purchases about 30 million cubic meters of gas more than the average weighted volume into reserves every day, the task will be successfully accomplished.
