Gas thaw. Why blue fuel is getting cheaper in Europe
Vladislav Shablovsky (Владислав Шабловский)
As of the second day of the new year, the cost of a thousand cubic meters of gas for European consumers has dropped to $777. Moreover, on Monday, the price drop exceeded four percent at once, and the decrease of quotations below $800 showed up just before the New Year. As TASS notes, for Europe such a "sale" of the key energy resource was a record almost for the whole year: the last time such a forgiving price was recorded in the middle of last February.
The reason for such a gas price hike is apparent - it is now abnormally warm in Europe, which significantly reduces the need for the blue fuel. Thus, in the first days of the year, the temperature in Rome fluctuates around +15 degrees, in Amsterdam it is around +10, and in Madrid it is between those two figures. But that's not the only New Year's present from the weather: winds are blowing in abundance in the Old World, making it possible to generate as much electricity as possible from wind turbines. The maximum is up to a third of all European electricity.
As a consequence, Europeans have temporarily forgotten about warm jumpers and stockpiles of firewood. Finally, "Ode to Joy" is also resounding in the EU, with the EU members having their natural-gas storage facilities filled to overflowing: the level of their storage capacity is now almost 85 percent.
