European Gas Prices Spike 13 Per Cent After Nord Stream 2 CancellationKurt Zindulka 23 Feb 2022
Energy prices are set to soar across Europe and the UK again following Germany blocking the approval of Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline amid the ongoing strife in Ukraine.
Europe’s natural gas price benchmark — which is determined by the price per unit of energy traded in the futures market in the Netherlands — saw a spike of 13 per cent on Tuesday. Even after coming down slightly on the day by the end of trading levelling out around 10 per cent higher, the market price is still 14 per cent higher than just five days ago.
Despite Russian gas only accounting for 3 per cent of Britain’s gas consumption, the UK, for its part, saw its own benchmark jump by 10 per cent on Tuesday, the i newspaper reported.
While the flow of gas has not changed from Russia into Europe as of yet, the futures traders were likely operating under the assumption that Russian leader Vladimir Putin would attempt to punish Europe after the decision by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to prevent the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline from finding regulatory approval.
Playing into such concerns, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said in response to the pipeline cancellation on Tuesday: “Welcome to the brave new world where Europeans are very soon going to pay €2,000 for 1,000 cubic meters of natural gas!”
Currently, Germany receives around half of its natural gas from Russia. Chancellor Scholz has vowed to search for alternative sources of energy to become less reliant on Russia, yet, it remains to be seen if his coalition government — which is comprised partially of an alliance with the Green Party — will reverse the government’s decision to shut down its nuclear energy sector, or indeed lift the prohibition on fracking in Germany.
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https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2022/02/23/european-gas-prices-spike-13-per-cent-after-nord-stream-2-cancellation/
