European natural gas prices have been falling for weeks and have now reached their lowest level since December 2021, thanks to a fairly mild winter and sufficient supplies of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
For a few days now, the European natural gas price has been fluctuating around €32/MWh on the futures markets – meaning prices are about ten times lower than they were at the peak of August 2022 (over €300/MWh).
Since then, however, the gas price has been falling steadily and since the beginning of 2023, the decline has been almost constant.
The decrease is partly due to the relatively mild winter and the strong response of European countries to the war in Ukraine; in recent months, there has been a large supply of liquefied natural gas (LNG). This means that the supply is now large enough to keep up with the demand to drive the price down.
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Whether the downward trend will continue in the coming months is hard to predict, but that does not change the fact that people could quickly start seeing the low prices reflected in their energy bills.
Most people currently have a contract with a variable price, in which the price fluctuations are re-calculated monthly or quarterly. Since the beginning of this year, the cost of the average Belgian energy bill has fallen by about 40%.
