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Stock exchange in Frankfurt am Main: setback by Gazprom
Photo: STAFF / REUTERS
The Russian gas company Gazprom is again halving deliveries through the Baltic Sea pipeline Nord Stream 1. Only 20 percent or 33 million cubic meters of gas will flow through the most important supply line to Germany every day from Wednesday - and that is also weakening the stock market.
European stock exchange trading reacted immediately to the announcement of lower delivery volumes from Russia.
The natural gas price went up.
The futures contract TTF on the energy exchange in the Netherlands, which is regarded as trend-setting, was traded at up to 175 euros per megawatt hour.
That is an increase of 7.7 percent compared to Friday.
The energy expert Florian Starck from the price portal Check24 expects gas prices on the stock exchanges to continue to rise.
Because the demand for gas is relatively constant, and now a replacement must be found for the failure of Russian gas.
Dampener for the Dax
The problem of the gas supply in Germany threw the Dax back somewhat in late trading.
The leading German index closed 0.33 percent lower at 13,210.32 points.
On the European stock exchange floor, too, the further turned off gas tap put a damper on the mood.
The price gains fell briefly, but the leading eurozone index EuroStoxx 50 climbed back into the black shortly before the end of trading and closed with an increase of 0.21 percent to 3604.16 points.
In Paris and London, the leading stock exchanges also closed somewhat more firmly.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial ended moderately higher in Europe.
Can the gas storage tanks be filled?
Gazprom cites the repair of another turbine as the reason for the reduced gas supplies.
As early as June, Gazprom had throttled deliveries via the pipeline to 40 percent of maximum capacity.
Gas deliveries via the currently most important connection to Germany for Russian natural gas were only resumed on Thursday after a ten-day routine maintenance.
Even before the maintenance, Gazprom had reduced the delivery quantity to 40 percent of capacity and referred to the turbine being sent to Canada for repairs.
The federal government considers this to be a pretext.
In the short term, the gas requirement in Germany is covered.
It could get tight in the long run.
The head of the Federal Network Agency Klaus Müller recently warned: "Even at a level of 40 percent, we have to make considerable efforts to get through the first winter well." If only 20 percent of the maximum capacity comes out of the pipeline, the replacement procurement becomes correspondingly more urgent .
Filling up the gas tanks in particular could become a problem.
ptz/dpa/Reuters