Gas price rises sharply to highest point in more than three weeks | Economy

Jun 09, 2023 at 6:28 PMUpdate: 5 minutes ago

The gas price skyrocketed on Friday to well above 30 euros per megawatt hour. It is the second price jump in a short time. Earlier this week, gas already became 20 percent more expensive in one day.

At the end of the afternoon on Friday, traders paid about 33 euros for a megawatt hour. At the start of the day it still cost 26.60 euros. That represented an increase of almost 25 percent.

European countries are currently busy filling gas supplies for next winter. But demand from Asian countries is also increasing considerably. Those countries are often willing to pay a higher price. As a result, quite a few gas tankers sail to, for example, China instead of Europe.

Despite the increase, gas is still considerably cheaper than last year. Then the price was above 100 euros for a long time and even above 300 euros for a short time. That peak was reached last summer. Since then, gas prices have steadily declined.

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This ensures that we spend less on the energy bill. For example, ING calculated that last month we paid an average of 30 euros less for gas and electricity than at the beginning of this year.

Energy rates for households could fall further in the near future. Rates often follow trade prices with some lag. As a result, the declines of the past ten months may not have been fully reflected in consumer rates.

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