Dutch front-month gas price touches new high
The front-month gas price at the Dutch TTF hub touched a new high of nearly €199/MWh ($2,360/'000 m3) in early trading on March 3, data published by ICE shows.
The peak was achieved at around 08:30 GMT. Since then, the price for the April contract has subsided to €163/MWh.
Prices began soaring in late 2021 amid a sharp rebound in demand from coronavirus lows and global supply constraints. In recent days they have been spurred further upwards by Moscow's escalating conflict in Ukraine.
Europe needs to end its dependency on Russian gas and build up its renewables capacity, according to a EU communication on energy prices that was leaked to Euractiv on March 2.
"This dependency has aggravated the current situation of high energy prices, which continues to impact European households and businesses," the leak said.
The communication was originally due to be published on March 2 but its release was postponed in light of the Russian invasion, and since then it has been redrafted.
"With the EU gas storages at historically low levels and security of supply concerns linked to low debit in the gas pipelines from the east, we witness a growing gas crisis," the draft states. "The EU remains highly dependent on energy imports for power generation and heating."
Gas storage utilisation currently stands at 28.6% capacity, according to data published by Gas Infrastructure Europe, down 0.3% percentage points from the previous day.