MOSCOW, October 10 Exchange prices for gas in Europe on Tuesday afternoon rose by 12%, to $534 per thousand cubic meters, after reports of an emergency press conference in Finland on a leak at gas pipeline Balticconnector, according to data from the London ICE exchange.
November (nearest) futures on the TTF index (the largest hub in Europe, located in the Netherlands) opened trading at $487.8 (+2.2%) per thousand cubic meters. And as of 14.55 Moscow time, their price is $534.4 (+12%). The dynamics of quotations are based on the settlement price of the previous trading day — $477.2 per thousand cubic meters.
Leading Finnish media, citing a source, reported that the Finnish government is preparing an emergency press conference on the situation with the leak on the Balticconnector gas pipeline.
Before these messages, gas prices rose by about 7%, trading at about $513 per thousand cubic meters. After the news, prices sharply accelerated their growth.
Finnish operator Gasgrid Finland previously reported that an undersea gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia was shut down on Sunday night after an unusual drop in pressure in the pipe, which could indicate a leak. The company later said that “there are reasons to suspect that the incident was caused by damage to an offshore gas pipeline,” without further elaboration. The Estonian energy company Elering did not rule out that Balticconnector could have been damaged intentionally.
Balticconnector is a gas pipeline along the bottom of the Gulf of Finland about 80 kilometers long between Inkoo in Finland and Paldisk in Estonia. Both countries have compressor stations and onshore gas transportation routes that connect the gas pipeline to the transport network. Balticconnector is located in the economic zones and territorial waters of Finland and Estonia. It was launched in December 2019.