Gas became significantly cheaper again on Friday. As a result, the price of fossil fuels has moved closer to the price earlier this year.
Warm weather this winter means that Europe’s gas supplies are still full. European countries and energy companies therefore want to spend less on gas.
Besides the mild winter, more electricity is generated with wind turbines. As a result, less gas is needed to generate electricity.
The price of a megawatt hour of gas on the main Amsterdam stock exchange was still above 80 euros at the start of the trading day. At the end of the day it was about 10 percent less. This means that the difference with the price at the beginning of this year is still around 13%.
Shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the price of gas peaked at over 200 euros per megawatt hour. When Russia largely shut off its gas tap this summer, the price of gas soared even more, to almost 350 euros per megawatt hour.
From then on, European countries bought gas en masse elsewhere to meet their obligations, but also to fill gas storage facilities.
Incidentally, the gas price is still significantly higher than last summer. In mid-2021 the price was still around 20 euros per megawatt hour.
