The European natural gas future for September delivery rose on Friday on the Dutch energy exchange in Amsterdam by around 9 percent to a record high of 340 euros per megawatt hour.
The Russian exporter Gazprom had announced that it would interrupt gas deliveries via the Nord Stream 1 Baltic Sea pipeline from August 31 for three days due to maintenance work. This fueled fears that the flow of gas from Russia, which was already severely restricted, could stop completely. The futures contract for delivery in October went up 3.7 percent on Friday to EUR 327.13 per megawatt hour.
The gas price only passed the 300 euro mark on Thursday. On the market, the latest high was at gas price further explained with a renewed interruption of Russian gas supplies to Europe through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline. Russia had announced that it would interrupt gas supplies via the Nord Stream 1 Baltic Sea pipeline for three days from August 31. This fueled fears that the gas flow from Russia, which had already been severely restricted, could stop completely if deliveries were not resumed after the break.
Electricity prices also rose on Thursday
As a result of gas prices, wholesale electricity prices also increased. On the Epex energy exchange, a megawatt hour of electricity on Thursday for tomorrow, Friday, cost around 700 euros in the base load and even more than 800 euros at the peak. Even in parts of Norway, the spot price rose to around 650 euros. In Germany, the futures contract for the delivery of one megawatt hour of electricity rose to 709 euros in one year. This signals that prices will remain high.
In order to be able to generate one megawatt hour of electricity from natural gas, around two megawatt hours of gas have to be burned. This is due to the physical efficiency of gas power plants. In the current situation, this means that wholesale electricity is usually more than twice as expensive as wholesale gas. In addition to the fuel costs for fossil power plants, there are also the costs for CO2 emissions. According to experts, in order to lower electricity prices again, a massive expansion of green electricity is needed throughout Europe.
Source: Nachrichten
