The price for a megawatt hour of gas (MWh) on the Dutch futures market – a guideline for the gas price in Europe – had fallen 9.85 percent further at 5.15 pm, to 87 euros. It concerns the price for delivery in February on the trading platform ICE (Intercontinental Exchange). On Friday morning, the gas price briefly peaked at about 103 euros.
The spurt down started after the Dutch gas network operator Gasunie announced that in the 12 months to September the production of the so-called Groningen field could increase to 7.6 billion cubic meters. An earlier projection only mentioned 3.9 billion cubic meters.
The exploitation of the Groningen field will be discontinued later this year due to the many minor earthquakes in the region that are the result of decades of gas extraction.
The announcement put an end to the price spurt in which prices were just 30 percent higher this week. Gas prices have been very high for months. One of the reasons is the fact that the Russian supply of gas to Europe remains limited, raising concerns about shortages.