Natural gas prices in Europe jumped due to a shortage of LNG and pipeline gas supplies, and cold weather, the Russia-based Interfax news agency reported on Thursday.
The spot prices of natural gas at the Dutch Title Transfer Facility (TTF) rose to $311 per thousand cubic meters, which is the highest level since January 13, when the European gas price soared to $335 following the boom in quotations in Asia, according to the report.
Interfax added that the summer scheduled repairs at Norwegian gas fields also contributed to the increase of the prices.
The Norwegian Asgard field, producing 21 million cubic meters of gas daily, is shut down for maintenance works. The country’s Karsto field, producing 20 million cubic meters of gas per day, was also stopped for 10 days.
The Dutch TTF hub is considered as one of tahe most important natural gas trading hubs in the world. Most of the global traders link their prices for natural gas products, including LNG, to the TTF. Natural gas at the TTF trades in euros per megawatt hour.