The European Union started the heating season with a delay of 3 weeks, but this did not add calm to the market

Alexey Belogoryev, Deputy Principal Director on Energy Studies of the Institute for Energy and Finance, commented to InfoTEK on the prospects for passing the heating season in the EU.

"This is indeed a very late start time for the heating season. If we talk about the EU, then earlier it started in early October, at the latest - October 28-31. This time the selection began 3-4 weeks later than usual. This made it possible to pump more volumes of gas into underground storage facilities. This is a guarantee that it is possible to relatively safely pass the heating season," Alexei Belogoryev told InfoTEK.

The expert believes that the situation is still extremely tense for Europeans, which is reflected in high spot prices. The fact is that for the successful passage of the winter period, the stability of natural gas supplies to Europe, as well as the level of consumption, which depends on the weather, is more significant for the EU. And this is where problems can arise.

“Therefore, market expectations are still tense, but there is no more panic, which was from May to September of this year. At least until the end of the year, it will not return. But there is tension, not only this winter, but also the next one,” Belogoryev emphasized.

The expert believes that the next winters for Europe will be even more difficult, since gas supply will not increase, but will only decrease due to a decrease in supplies from Russia.

"Russia still managed to supply the EU with quite large volumes of gas in the first half of the year," he explained.

The expert believes that most likely this winter the average monthly prices will not exceed $2,000 per thousand cubic meters even at the peak of demand in January-February. However, on some days the cost of gas may exceed this level.