MOSCOW, August 14 European gas exchange prices are up more than 2% during the day on Wednesday, exceeding $450 per thousand cubic meters, according to data from the London ICE exchange.
September (nearest) futures on the TTF index (the largest hub in Europe, located in the Netherlands) opened trading at 9:00 Moscow time at $445.4 (-0.3%) per thousand cubic meters. And as of 10:26 Moscow time, their value is $456.8 (+2.3%).
The dynamics of quotes are given from the settlement price of the previous trading day — $446.6 per thousand cubic meters. A few days earlier, the indicator reached its maximum since December 1 last year. Over the past week, the estimated price has increased by 13.4%, or more than $50, amid concerns about the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine.
At 5.30 a.m. on August 6, Ukrainian Armed Forces units launched an offensive to seize territory in the Kursk region, and their advance was halted, said Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov. He stressed that the operation in the Kursk region would be completed by defeating the enemy and reaching the state border.
The supply route through the Sudzha gas metering station in the Kursk region is currently the only one for gas transit from Russia through Ukraine to Europe. Gazprom supplied about 15 billion cubic meters per year through it last year, which amounted to 4.5% of the total consumption in the EU.
Gazprom official representative Sergei Kupriyanov noted that the events in the Sudzha area led to a sharp increase in prices for both natural gas and LNG, an annual peak in exchange prices was recorded, and in this regard, the question arises as to who benefits from this.