"Significantly increasing gas prices": Federal Network Agency prepares consumers for hard times

Created: 08/22/2022, 17:07

By: Lisa Mayerhofer

The Federal Network Agency updated its gas supply situation report on Monday.

But the new outlook does not bode well.

Amsterdam/Bonn – The Federal Network Agency has bad news to offer at the beginning of the week.

The authority has published its new status report on gas supply in Germany.

In it she warns: "The situation is tense and a further deterioration in the situation cannot be ruled out." However, the gas supply in Germany is currently stable and the security of supply is currently guaranteed.

However, due to the decline in delivery volumes, wholesale prices have risen to a “very high level”.

The authority warns: "Companies and private consumers must be prepared for significantly increasing gas prices." At least gas can still be stored in Germany.

The total storage status is therefore 79.5 percent.

According to the Federal Network Agency, the Rehden storage facility is 60.4 percent full.

Management report of the Federal Network Agency: Gas prices soaring

There is also bad news from the energy exchange in Amsterdam: Accordingly, the gas price in Europe continued to soar at the beginning of the week.

The TTF futures contract, which is trend-setting for European gas trading, had already risen significantly on the energy exchange last week.

Now the price has risen again on Monday – by more than 13 percent to almost 276 euros per megawatt hour.

In the past week, natural gas was traded at a peak of just under 251 euros.

Only in the period immediately after the outbreak of war in Ukraine was the price of natural gas traded in Europe briefly higher, peaking at over EUR 300 in early March.

Supply interruption at Nord Stream 1 causes renewed price surge

On the market, the new surge in gas prices was explained by a renewed interruption in Russian gas supplies to Europe through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline.

Russia announced on Friday that it would interrupt gas supplies via the Nord Stream 1 Baltic Sea pipeline for three days at the end of August.

The state-owned company Gazprom announced that no gas would flow from August 31 to September 2 due to maintenance work.

According to Russian information, after the maintenance work, 33 million cubic meters of natural gas will be delivered again every day.

This corresponds to the 20 percent of the daily maximum output to which Russia reduced deliveries a few weeks ago.