Reuters: The ceiling on natural gas “locked” at 180 euros

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Ministers are currently considering the draft of the Czech republic

Today, Monday, a new round of discussions on the imposition of a cap on natural gas is underway among EU energy ministers.

According to the international agency Reuters, the energy ministers seem to have reached an agreement on a ceiling of 180 euros in natural gas, after the order they received from the Summit of the “27” leaders of the EU, to end the issue once and for all.

In the draft proposal, a cap would be triggered if prices in the Dutch Title Transfer Facility’s (TTF) bimonthly gas hub contract jump to €180 per megawatt hour for three days.

The amount in the draft proposal is much lower than the 275 euros/MWh initially proposed by the European Commission last month, which around a dozen countries, including Belgium, Poland and Greece, had rejected as too high. Countries supporting the cap say the cap should be below €200/MWh to counter high gas prices that have inflated people’s energy bills and pushed inflation to record levels.

But Germany, the Netherlands and Austria oppose the cap, which they say could disrupt Europe’s energy markets.

The position of Greece

Earlier, the Minister of Energy, Kostas Skrekas, described as a “good compromise” the latest draft proposal for a European ceiling on the price of gas.

“Any price between 150 and 190/200 will do. I believe that 188 will give the right signals to the markets,” said the Greek minister ahead of the meeting of EU energy ministers aimed at reaching an agreement on the ceiling.

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