The gas price for May 17 delivery at the TTF hub in the Netherlands rose to $342 per 1,000 cubic meters, the highest value since September 26, 2018, Report informs referring to Interfax.
The price hike follows the European prices for CO2 emissions, which are renewing records day by day. Premium LNG prices in Asia and limited pipeline gas supplies also affect prices.
Since the beginning of the year, the average price of a day-ahead contract for TTF was $246 per 1,000 cubic meters.
Since the second week of May, the European gas industry has finally started pumping gas into underground storage facilities. The past heating season was record-breaking in terms of extraction (69.5 billion cubic meters, which is 24.3 billion cubic meters more than in the previous season). This means that to compensate for the wasted reserves, it is necessary to pump the same amount over the summer, which is a technically difficult task. The situation is aggravated even more by the fact that the actual injection season started with a month and a half delay.
The current level of reserves in storage facilities in Europe (32.74 percent at the end of May 15) is 13.3 percentage points lower than the average for the last five years and only 1.4 points higher than the historical low of reserves for this day of the year.