On the Dutch futures market – the benchmark for the price of natural gas in Europe – the price will rise by more than 5 percent on Tuesday to 232 euros per megawatt hour. The gas price also rose almost 7 percent on Monday.
Due to the heat and drought, the level of water in the rivers is falling, which jeopardizes the transport of raw materials such as oil and coal. This is especially the case for the Rhine, where the water level is so low that shipping becomes unprofitable.
This makes power plant operators even more dependent on natural gas, while the market is already extremely tight.
Russia has reduced the capacity of the main natural gas pipeline to Germany to just 20 percent. It refers to problems with a turbine that cannot be supplied. Germany says Moscow is using the turbine as an excuse to turn off the gas tap to Europe.