Gas prices in the EU are fixed at levels below $1,000

In early January, spot gas prices in Europe stably fixed at levels well below $1,000 per 1,000 cubic meters. m, despite the decline in Russian supplies, according to the ICE exchange. According to the head of the German Federal Grid Agency (regulator of gas and electricity markets) Klaus Müller, the European gas market has reached a price plateau. “There is a lot to say that we have reached a price plateau that can be taken into account for the next one or two years,” he said January 8 in an interview with the German publication Bild am Sonntag.

But the possibility of a sharp increase in fuel costs remains, Muller said. He singled out three major risk factors: colder weather in the 2023/24 heating season, increased gas consumption by China, and threats to the security of EU gas infrastructure, as shown by the attacks on the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines (September 26). In 2022, it became known about damage due to sabotage of two lines of Nord Stream and one of the two lines of Nord Stream 2. – Vedomosti).