European utility companies are rushing to raise billions of euros, a proof to the financial stress caused by record prices of gas and electricity, reports The Wall Street Journal.

The German group Uniper SE, one of the largest utility companies in Europe, announced on Tuesday evening that, in recent weeks, it has arranged credit lines worth 10 billion euros from the parent company and a bank owned by the German state. In addition, the company, which produces electricity throughout Europe and sells natural gas worldwide, has also accessed a 1.8 billion euro line of credit from several banks, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

RWE AG, another large German utility company, also announced on Wednesday that it was affected by volatile prices and was forced to make cash reserves. “Large price fluctuations have led to a temporary need for significant liquidity. We have made provisions for this in our lines of credit and other financial instruments,” an RWE spokesman said, according to Agerpres.

Utility companies need extra liquidity to keep up with rising gas and electricity prices. As energy prices have risen in recent months, so have margin payments for contracts that energy suppliers have had to enter into as a safeguard for natural gas and electricity sales. The price of natural gas in Europe is five times higher than it was a year ago. This crisis has already led to the bankruptcy of 28 UK energy supply companies.

The three 11.8 billion-euro credit lines arranged by Uniper are approaching the company’s market capitalization, which according to FactSet is currently of 15.4 billion euros. In the first nine months of 2021, Uniper reported a loss of 4.8 billion euro at a turnover of 78 billion euros, one of the reasons being the losses from hedging operations.