OREANDA-NEWS The exchange price of natural gas in the European energy market on Tuesday, October 20, exceeded 90 euros per megawatt hour, which was the highest since December 2022. This is reported by Bloomberg.

At the height of the second half of October, the price of gas at the Dutch TTF hub reached almost 1062 dollars per thousand cubic meters. This is about three times higher than the level recorded before the outbreak of the war in the Middle East between the United States and Iran.

The rapid rise in gas prices in Europe is observed against the background of increased Iranian attacks on tankers in the Strait of Hormuz and attacks by Yemeni Houthi rebels on energy infrastructure facilities in the Persian Gulf countries. The blocking of a key logistics artery in the Middle East has led to a sharp drop in supplies of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the European Union (EU).

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The dynamics of fuel prices is also influenced by the record low level of filling of European gas storage facilities. Currently, it is about 75 percent, which is the lowest figure for this time of year for the entire observation period, that is, since 2009. At the same time, in some countries of the region, including Germany, the indicator is around 60 percent.

Earlier, the European Commission (EC) called on EU countries to drastically reduce electricity and gas consumption due to high energy prices. As stated by European Commissioner Dan Jorgensen, the restriction of demand should last "as long as it takes," without naming the approximate duration of its effect. As for the import of Russian gas, the EU once again stressed that they are not going to abandon their plans against the background of the energy crisis and intend to reduce the dependence of its purchases to zero by the end of next year. We are talking about both natural and liquefied natural fuels.