Gas price further down, close to price at the beginning of this year

Gas became considerably cheaper again on Friday. As a result, the price of fossil fuel has come closer to the price at the beginning of this year. The warm weather this winter means that European gas reserves are still full. As a result, European countries and energy companies are willing to pay less to buy more gas.

The price of a megawatt hour of gas on Amsterdam's leading exchange was still above 80 euros at the start of the trading day but fell by around 10 percent by the end of the day. This means that the difference compared with the price at the beginning of the year is around 13 percent. This is despite the fact that the price of gas reached a peak of more than 200 euros per megawatt hour shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

When Russia largely turned off the gas tap this summer, the price of gas rose even further to almost 350 euros per megawatt hour. From then on, European countries bought gas en masse from other countries to meet their obligations, but also to fill their gas storage facilities.

In addition to the favorable temperatures, another factor was that more electricity was generated by wind turbines. As a result, less gas was needed to generate electricity.

In general, the price of gas is still significantly higher than last summer. In mid-2021, the price was still around 20 euros per megawatt hour.