The price of natural gas has caused a sensation in recent weeks.

Recently, the movements have become quieter.

Compared to four weeks ago, the European price of natural gas has practically not changed.

The Russian demand for payment in rubles is not seen as an acute risk, especially since the situation will ease with the end of the heating season.

Martin Hock

Editor in Business.

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In an interview with Bloomberg Television, Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner once again clearly rejected Moscow's demand.

Contracts are contracts and these are based on dollars and euros.

Therefore, private companies should pay in dollars or euros.

Currently, 97 euros are paid for a megawatt hour of gas for delivery in one month, for gas for delivery on the same day only 68 euros are due, which is lower than at any time since the beginning of the Ukraine war.

Claiming rubles is not seen as a problem

Payment arrangements are a month away from becoming an immediate problem, Tom Marzec-Manser, head of gas analysis at ICIS, told Bloomberg.

He sees no risk for the pipeline supply in the next two months.

Alternative sources of supply had less of an impact, Thierry Bros, a professor at the Paris Institute for Political Studies, told Bloomberg.

If Russia stopped supplying gas, prices would still skyrocket.

Nonetheless, gas is still extremely expensive.

It is true that the currently around 98 euros for a megawatt hour are well below price peaks of 212 euros in March or the price peak of 181 euros in December.

However, the price is still higher than in the already expensive months of October to January - not to mention the average for the years 2008 to 2020, when the average megawatt hour was just over 19 euros.

There are therefore some indications that the gas price will initially remain at a multiple of what the European gas market and European consumers are used to from the past.

In the years between 2008 and 2020, they benefited from the liberalization of the gas market, which had dragged on from 1998 to 2009 and which was supposed to bring lower gas prices.

The only problem was that lower prices require a functioning market.

However, the strong position of the former monopolists eroded only slowly, and they were able to use liberalization to raise prices, especially in the early stages.

With the conflict over supplies from Russia, the market has now been permanently disrupted, which will lead to higher prices in the foreseeable future.