Europe Natural Gas Prices Soar as Gazprom Squeezes Supplies to Germany

By Geoffrey Smith 

Investing.com — European pure fuel costs surged over 20% on Wednesday as Russian monopoly Gazprom (MCX:) minimize provides to its greatest buyer, Germany, for the second day operating.

The front-month contract within the Netherlands, which serves as a benchmark for north-west Europe, closed at 118.25 euros a megawatt-hour, up almost 22% from Tuesday’s shut.

Gazprom stated it might minimize flows by the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to 67 million cubic meters a day from Thursday, having already introduced a primary minimize from 167 mcm to 100 mcm on Tuesday.

The corporate attributed its step to the delayed return of apparatus for the Portovaya compressor station, which had been despatched overseas for upkeep by its maker, Siemens (NS:).

Siemens had shipped the gear to Canada, which is now refusing to return it resulting from its personal sanctions on Russia, imposed after the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine in February.

German Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck described Gazprom’s transfer as ‘politically motivated.’

“It’s clearly a method to unsettle and drive up costs,” Habeck was quoted by Deutsche Welle as saying.

“We will presently purchase the required portions from the market, albeit at larger costs,” he added.

Germany has already activated the primary part of a three-part plan that would finally result in fuel rationing throughout the nation, a measure that might have far reaching penalties for the engine room of the Eurozone financial system.

The transfer is the newest in a collection of actions by Gazprom which have squeezed provides to Europe, which has itself tried to exert financial stress on Russia by phasing in a ban on oil and gasoline imports by the top of the yr.

Gazprom has already minimize off provides to the largest fuel distributors within the Netherlands, Denmark and others resulting from their refusal to adjust to a unilateral rewriting of their provide contract forcing them to pay in rubles.

European pure fuel costs have surged this yr as consumers have needed to rapidly discover different suppliers to Russia. That has pushed up the value of seaborne liquefied pure fuel from the U.S., contributing a lot to the rise in U.S. costs in latest weeks. hit their highest since 2008 earlier this month.