Spot natural gas price drops in Romania as deposits get filled and weather stays warm

The low consumption, a result of the warm weather (and industrial capacity curtailing operations), and the deposits getting filled (well above 90%) have both dragged down the spot gas prices on Romania’s commodity market BRM to under RON 200 (EUR 40) per MWh for the first time in 15 months, Profit.ro reported.

The national natural gas consumption is around 220 GWh per day, compared to about 270 GWh per day at the same time of the year, in 2021.

On November 1, there were 2.963 bln cubic meters in the underground storages operated by Depogaz and Depomureș, a level close to the record for this time of the year recorded in 2019, of 2.966 bln cubic meters.

The last time lower prices were recorded was at the beginning of August 2021.

On November 2, the average price of energy on the day-ahead market operated by OPCOM stood at RON 191.1 per MWh (EUR 38.9 per MWh), while the intraday price dropped as low as RON 175 RON per MWh (EUR 35.6 per MWh). The situation is not much different elsewhere in Europe: at the Austrian CEGH gas hub, the spot price was even lower compared to Romania, namely EUR 35.6 per MWh.

The last time gas was traded at a lower price on Romania’s spot market was on August 9, 2021, when it was sold for RON 188.3 per MWh. At the end of September, spot prices were almost 5 times higher, over RON 900 per MWh.

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