MOSCOW, May 25. The cost of the nearest futures for gas in Europe for the first time in two years fell below $300 per thousand cubic meters, follows from the data of the London ICE exchange.
June (nearest) futures on the TTF index (the largest hub in Europe, located in the Netherlands) opened trading at $311.5 per thousand cubic meters (+0.4%). Soon the cost dropped to below $300. So far, Thursday's minimum price is $286.4 per thousand cubic meters (-7.7%). The dynamics of quotations is given from the settlement price of the previous trading day — 310.3 dollars per thousand cubic meters.
Exchange gas prices in Europe have been declining since the end of last year, until finally, for the first time in two years, they fell below $300 per thousand cubic meters. Thursday's low is more than 13 times lower than the record values of the first days of last spring — $3,892 per thousand cubic meters.
The price of gas on the European stock exchange fell due to sufficient reserves in underground gas storage facilities in the European Union, as well as warm and windy weather and austerity measures, which significantly reduced the consumption of blue fuel. However, despite the decline, gas prices are one and a half to two times higher than the average for a long history of observations. Such persistently high prices have not been seen in the entire history of the operation of gas hubs in Europe, since 1996.
Gas prices in the European market increased significantly in the spring of 2021. Then the quotes fluctuated in the range of 250-300 dollars per thousand cubic meters, by the end of the summer they exceeded 600 dollars, and in the fall — already a thousand dollars. In the winter of 2021-2022, prices crossed the threshold of $ 2,000 per thousand cubic meters, and in early spring, due to fears of a ban on the import of Russian energy resources, they reached a record high.