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Pipelines of the gas storage facility of Stadtwerke Kiel
Photo: Axel Heimken / dpa
The price of European natural gas continues to fall.
On Friday, the price for the trend-setting futures contract TTF for delivery in a month fell below the mark of 50 euros per megawatt hour for the first time in a good year and a half.
In the afternoon it was just over 49 euros, which is the lowest level since August 2021.
Natural gas prices had already risen noticeably from autumn 2021, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine led to further drastic price increases.
At the top, prices of 345 euros were paid.
Until spring 2021, natural gas had cost around 20 euros for years.
The once high dependence on Russian gas had led to an energy crisis.
The current price decline has been going on since last summer.
It is mainly due to well-stocked natural gas storage facilities, high imports of liquid gas and lower demand due to the weather.
Both autumn and winter were comparatively warm.
In addition, there are savings in private households, but above all in industry, which produces less for cost reasons.
Most recently, the gas storage facilities in Germany were still 71 percent full - significantly more than the average for the years 2016 to 2020, which was 54 percent in mid-February.
A year ago, German gas storage facilities were only 31 percent full.
Even if private households and industry were to increase their consumption back to the level before the energy crisis, the gas storage facilities would probably still be around half full by the end of winter.
fdi/dpa
