Russia, the largest gas supplier to Europe, and Algeria have substantially increased their exports but not enough to ease market concerns. Over the last year European gas prices have risen from around $4 per million British thermal units to about $18. вЂњWe have very low storage levels for the time of year.вЂќД®urope imports around 60 percent of its gas, with supplies coming by pipeline from Russia and to a lesser extent Algeria and Libya.ДЄdding to the tight situation in Europe, Groningen, the giant gas field in the Netherlands that long served as a safety valve for both its home country and western Germany, is being gradually shut down because of earthquakes.

вЂњThe market is very nervous as we move into the winter season,вЂќ said Laura Page, an analyst at Kpler, a research firm. As a result, European storage facilities are at the depleted levels usual in winter rather than the peaks of fall. Subsequently, they have been reluctant to top them up with high-priced gas. Instead, suppliers responded to the cold weather late last winter by draining gas storage facilities. The immediate worry for markets in Europe is that suppliers have not followed their usual practice and used the summer months to fill storage chambers with cheap gas that will be used during the winter, when cold weather more than doubles the consumption of gas in countries like Britain and Germany. The United States has a big price advantage over Europe because of its large domestic supply of relatively cheap gas from shale drilling and other activities, while Europe must import most of its gas. Gas prices in the United States have risen as well, but they are only around a quarter of those being paid in Europe. вЂњThe electricity price hike has created a lot of indignation, and this is of course moving onto the streets,вЂќ said MarГa Campuzano, spokeswoman for the Alliance against Energy Poverty, a Spanish association that helps people struggling to pay energy bills.

Spanish households are paying roughly 40 percent more than what they paid for electricity a year ago as the wholesale price has more than doubled, prompting angry protests against utility companies. The price jumps are unusual because demand is typically relatively low in the warmer summer months, raising alarms about the prospects for further increases when demand jumps in the winter.

The high costs feed into electric power prices and have begun showing up in utility bills, weighing on consumers whose personal finances have already been strained by the pandemic. Wholesale prices for the fuel are at their highest in years - nearly five times where they were at this time in 2019, before people started falling ill with the virus. LONDON - As the world struggles to recover from the pandemic, soaring natural gas prices threaten to become a drag on the economies of Europe and elsewhere.

Project winter price