Gas prices have started to heat up again in Europe, with a 9% jump which has brought them closer to the threshold of 30 euros per Megawatt hour. At the TTF, the session on Thursday 11th closed at a two-month high, at 29.45 euros.
The tensions were triggered by a new Russian attack – the fourth in less than three weeks – which hit two gas storage depots in Ukraine: a sequence that confirms how the infrastructure relating to this fuel has now truly entered Moscow’s sights , with a significant change in strategy compared to the past.
Once again, Naftogaz did not identify the affected sites, which are located in the western region of Lviv, and assured that the damage, limited to external structures, did not compromise operations. But the repetition of the attacks has started to create nervousness in the market.
Ukraine has an enormous gas storage capacity, which today it also makes available to foreign operators (offering 10 billion cubic meters, about a third of the total). Furthermore, it is crossed by important gas pipelines, which still pass through Russian supplies to European countries, including Italy: flows of around 40 million cubic meters per day.
These are infrastructures that have emerged unscathed from over two years of war, because they are also valuable for Moscow. But Gazprom will lose the contract for the transit of its gas to Ukraine at the end of 2024. And the perspective has evidently changed.
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2024-04-13 02:56:04