Gas price reacts strongly to disappointing Nord Stream pipeline deliveries
Russian gas deliveries through the Nord Stream pipeline were cut from 40 to 20 percent of capacity last week. Russia accuses Siemens of not having remedied defects in the necessary turbines, Siemens contradicts those reports. Earlier this month, Nord Stream did not supply gas for ten days due to maintenance. Trading prices rose during the day on Wednesday to above 220 euros per megawatt hour, the highest price in months. On Friday, the price dropped again to below 200 euros. This weekend, however, the gas flow decreased further, from 14.4 million to 13 million kilowatt hours per hour. In addition, the Russian state-owned company Gazprom announced that it would no longer supply gas to Latvia, because the Latvians refuse to switch to payments in rubles. Gazprom previously stopped deliveries to Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, Poland and the Netherlands. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán expects to conclude an agreement with Russia this summer on the supply of 700 million cubic meters of extra gas.
Filling gas storage in the Netherlands goes according to plan
The Dutch gas storage facilities are being filled as expected, the national government reports in the weekly report on the security of gas supply. The filling percentage is now 64 percent, compared to 61 percent a week earlier. The government aims to have at least 80 percent full at the end of October, which is the end of the filling season. In the Netherlands, about 550 gigawatt hours of gas is now consumed per day, almost a quarter less than the average for this time of year. Just like last week, the government speaks of an ‘early warning’, the lowest of three crisis levels. There are currently no acute gas shortages in the Netherlands, but the reduced supplies could lead to higher prices and less filled gas storage facilities.
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