Comprehensive foreign media reports, the European natural gas crisis has escalated, natural gas prices have further soared.
Gas futures rose to $2,866.6 per 1,000 cubic meters on August 22, a record high for several gas hubs in Europe and the highest since operating in 1996, Sputnik news agency reported Wednesday.
The European benchmark gas price, the TTF, rose more than 10 percent on Monday (August 22) to a high of 290 euros per megawatt hour, the Financial Times Chinese website reported on Wednesday. In the UK, prices of gas delivered the next day surged 33 per cent to £4.80 / Sam.
European TTF prices have risen to more than 14 times the average of the past decade, the report said. Traders and economists say this could hit industrial production on the continent, pushing the region into recession. Widespread concerns about supply shortages this winter have prompted natural gas users to try to lock in supplies, so much so that they will still push natural gas prices up amid growing fears of a severe economic slowdown.
The report quoted gas traders as saying, " The latest price surge was the Russian state-controlled gas monopoly announced on Friday night plans to maintain the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany early next month.”
Gazprom (Gazprom) had previously cut the pipeline to a normal 20 percent, making prices in mainland gas more than double since June, the report said.
"Some people in the market expect nord Stream 1 gas transmission will not resume after September maintenance," Energy Aspects's James wader (James Waddell) told the report, " in that case, we need to see additional demand disappeared, to family and basic services priority consumer security enough supply, so if the government is not forced to further reduce consumption, we may see prices are more and more extreme.”
The report stressed that a 10 percent rise in a single day would cause a huge change in absolute gas prices. Governments are prepared to protect their people from the shock of gas prices, which are so far lower than in Europe, but are expected to rise during the winter months.
Citigroup warned on Tuesday that UK inflation could reach nearly 19 per cent early next year as gas prices soared, the report said.
