Europe forgot about Russian gas

Sergey Kondratiev, Principal Director on Economic Studies at the Institute for Energy and Finance, commented to the Kommersant newspaper on natural gas prices in the EU.

If the EU countries continue to reduce demand for natural gas (in March, consumption was 12% lower than March 2022), we may see TTF prices return to the “old normal” of $220–280 per 1,000 cubic meters in the summer, prices had been in this range since the mid-2010s, Sergey Kondratiev believes.

“Only a return of China to the market can significantly affect the dynamics of prices in the EU, but so far China is betting on coal generation and gas imports are recovering more slowly than we might expect (plus 10% yoy in April),” the analyst says.