The price of natural gas in Europe continued to fall, hitting a new near two-year low on Thursday, as comfortable European storage levels and rising temperatures dampened demand, AFP reported.

The Dutch TTF futures contract, considered Europe’s benchmark, was trading around 30.09 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) around 16:00 GMT on Thursday, shortly after reaching 29.69 euros per MWh, prices, which has not been registered since June 2021.

British gas also hit its lowest price since June 2021 on Thursday, falling more than 63% since the start of the year. In the US, gas prices have fallen by more than 43% since the beginning of 2023.

“A combination of a mild winter, record LNG exports from the US and moderate demand from the residential and industrial sectors have pushed European gas prices lower,” RBC Capital Markets analyst Biraj Borkhataria told AFP.

Stocking for the winter and futile hopes of Russia

“Global warming is reducing demand for heating gas,” Seb analyst Bjarne Schildrop said in a note.

Storage levels in Europe are even “close to record levels for this time of year,” Schildrop said.

Therefore, Europe is on the way to replenishing its reserves until next winter. Russia once again declared that the West will have a harder winter and will freeze.

Falling energy prices (gas as well as oil, down more than 10% year-to-date for Brent) contributed to a fall in the euro zone’s annual inflation rate from November to March, but it has started to rise again. slightly, up to 7% in April.

Despite the drop in prices, “European inflation is difficult to control,” said Edward Moya of Oanda, in an interview with AFP.