European gas prices hit maximum

On Wednesday morning, the spot price of natural gas in Europe continues to show growth due to insufficient production of electricity from renewable sources and unfavourable weather conditions, Interfax-Ukraine reports.

The price of the January futures on TTF on the ICE Futures exchange reached €132.995 per MWh, $1550 per thousand cubic meters.

In November, the price of a day-ahead contract averaged $945, in December – $1182 per thousand cubic meters. Since the beginning of the year, the average price has reached $518.

Renewable electricity production showed a significant decline. On Monday, the share of wind farms in electricity generation in Europe was only 10.1%, on Tuesday – only 9.9% (with an average of 15.6% in the week of December 6-12), according to data from the WindEurope association.

The filling level of European UGS facilities with gas reached 61.9% of their maximum capacity.

To recap, the EU plans to abandon long-term gas contracts with Russia.