The European gas price fell again on Monday after a significant increase last week. Traders are looking, among other things, at increasing demand for power for air conditioners and fans, for example, due to the warm weather.
But at the same time, European gas reserves are very well filled, which in turn counterbalances the price.
On the leading Amsterdam gas exchange, the price of a megawatt hour fell by more than 8 percent to below 30 euros on Monday morning. Last week, the price rose by about 38 percent. That was the strongest weekly increase since August last year. In that month, price peaks of more than 340 euros were reached due to concerns about gas shortages in the winter period.
Europe has imported much more liquefied natural gas (LNG) to replenish supplies. Countries in Asia are also importing more LNG because the weather is very hot in that region, and the electricity demand for air conditioning is therefore increasing, which means that more gas is burned in power stations. This leads to increased competition in the LNG market for European buyers, which can have a price-driving effect.
There are also fewer gas deliveries from Norway due to maintenance work on Norwegian gas fields and installations.
