Tamara Safonova, Associate Professor at the Department of International Commerce at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration under the President of Russia, argues that the main reasons for the increase in gas prices are the shortage of traditional hydrocarbons in the European market, insufficient gas reserves in storage facilities, and an increase in gas demand in the APR countries.
In turn, Igor Yushkov, an analyst with the National Energy Security Fund, believes that the rise in gas prices is associated with seasonal cooling and the need to use gas from underground storage facilities.
“When statistics appear about how much has already been taken away, what volumes of imports are going, how the temperature changes, this immediately leads to a nervous reaction of the market.
Gas starts to rise in price.
It is, rather, such a pattern, and in the future we will see the continuation of this trend, "the interlocutor of RT concluded.
He also referred to data from Gazprom, according to which the Europeans have already consumed a quarter of the gas pumped into underground storage in 2021, in the first heating season alone.
“At this rate, the Europeans will empty their underground storage facilities much earlier than in previous years ... When there is not enough gas left in underground storage facilities, it turns out to get less and less gas every day.
If earlier such a difficult period for the heating season came somewhere in February-March, now it can already happen in January, ”Yushkov explained.
According to the expert's forecasts, the price of gas in Europe will continue to grow.
The price of gas in Europe at the opening of exchange trading on Tuesday, December 7, again rose above $ 1100 per 1,000 cubic meters.
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The cost of the January futures contract on the TTF hub in the Netherlands increased to $ 1104 per 1,000 cubic meters.
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