The gas is thinner, the ceiling is lower

Sergey Kondratiev, Deputy Head of the Economic Department of the Institute for Energy and Finance, commented to the Kommersant newspaper on setting prices for natural gas in the EU countries.

Sergey Kondratiev believes that setting the "price ceiling" for gas at the level of €180 per 1 MWh increases the likelihood of its application in practice. Some of the volumes may go to the over—the-counter market, but the effect is likely to be small - supplies will simply be redirected to Asia.

"The problem now is not so much with the price ceiling — the cost of gas in the EU will be determined to a greater extent by demand in Asia, volumes will go there and Europeans will not be able to buy LNG at all," he notes.