Europe’s gas crisis escalated on Monday with prices soaring further as traders warned of the risk of additional Russian supply cuts and growing competition with Asia for seaborne cargoes of liquefied natural gas.
The benchmark TTF gas price in Europe rallied more than 10 per cent to a high of €290 per megawatt hour and is on course to notch up its highest closing price on record. In the UK, gas prices for next-day delivery surged as much as 33 per cent to £4.80 a therm.
The rise in European TTF prices to more than 14 times their average of the past decade may crimp industrial production in mainland Europe and push the region into recession, traders and economists have said. Widespread fears of shortages this winter have led gas users to try to lock in supplies, pushing up prices even as fears of a severe economic slowdown grow.