The prices of gas and, implicitly, of electricity will reach unprecedented values ​​this winter and many industrial consumers will go bankrupt, according to an analysis of the Intelligent Energy Association.

The price of natural gas reached a new record level on the Dutch stock market on Tuesday, 251 euros/MWh, although the average air temperature in Europe is 25 degrees Celsius.

The prices of gas and implicitly of electricity will reach unprecedented values ​​this winter, and the most important problem of the coming winter is the actual existence of gas, which will lead to the situation where some consumers or countries will be determined to offer no matter how much for gas, only to have them, say the authors of the study, according to Agerpres.

“Last year, the increase in the price of natural gas began in July, following the reduction of gas supplies from Russia, against the background of the lack of long-term contractual obligations and some technical problems. This situation determined a rise in the price of gas by 463% compared to of the maximum price recorded before the start of the conflict in Ukraine. History is repeating itself this year. The reduction of gas supplies to European countries will bring gas prices in the winter, which have never existed before for this product,” the specialists claim.

There are two forecasts in the public space, which show that it is possible that the price of gas traded on the stock exchange will increase by 44% – 60% in the winter of 2022-2023. Although these values ​​are dizzying, they do not represent the most pessimistic scenario of the gas price increase this winter.

Dumitru Chisăliţă, the president of AEI, recalls that, in March 2022, during the debates on the GEO on the Capping of the price of gas and electricity, he stated: “According to the draft GEO, the price of natural gas sold by producers is set at 150 lei/MWh for natural gas that will be purchased for the population and of 250 lei/MWh for the gas that will be purchased for the consumers of thermal energy producers. This situation will determine, exactly as it happened in the case of GEO 114, an explosion in the price of gas for non-household consumers that consume more than 50,000 MWh/year. Respectively, these consumers will pay almost all imported gas in the next year (approx. 80%), but also the difference between the market price and the capped price for domestically produced gas, i.e. industrial consumers will pay a price of at least 1,000 lei/MWh. I appreciate that most industrial consumers who consume more than 50,000 MWh/year will go bankrupt.”