Natural gas prices hit fresh record peaks

LONDON- Agence France Presse

European and U.K. gas prices rocketed yesterday to all-time highs on strong winter demand and simmering geopolitical tensions between key supplier Russia and consumer nations.

Europe’s reference Dutch TTF gas price jumped nearly 20 percent from Dec.20 to hit 175.00 euros per megawatt hour in early afternoon trading.

Meanwhile, U.K. prices leapt to 435 pence per therm.

Both markets beat previous records from October, also struck on demand worries for the northern hemisphere winter months. They are currently about eight times greater than at the start of 2021.

Runaway spot gas prices, alongside other buoyant commodities including crude oil, have fuelled mounting concern about spiking inflation worldwide.

European gas “continued its inexorable rise... to another record,” wrote Deutsche Bank analysts in a client note.

“It comes as temperatures have continued to decline heading into the European winter, and we also got the news that (Russian energy giant) Gazprom had not booked any extra capacity in January for gas flowing through Ukraine.

“That’s an important story heading through the winter with implications for European growth, and one that will have investors closely following the weather forecasts to work out what might happen.”

Europe’s gas stocks had already been depleted by a prolonged winter last year.