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Natural gas in Europe rose sharply at the beginning of today's trade by nearly 14% to a two-week price peak of 88 euros per megawatt-hour (MWh) or just over $ 1,000 per thousand cubic meters due to growing fears of a possible recent Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Limited gas flows from Russia to Europe are also contributing to today's rise in the price of natural gas.

Natural gas in Europe fell by more than 5%

Russia's gas holding Gazprom has not reserved additional capacity for natural gas transit through Ukraine and has not submitted orders for the capacity offered for transit through Poland in March 2022, according to RBP and GSA Platform, BNR reported.

According to the GSA Platform, Gazprom has not reserved capacity for pumping gas through Poland through the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline for both the second and third quarters of 2022.

Meanwhile, Germany's Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action said at a briefing today that the country's gas storage facilities were almost 35% full and authorities were closely monitoring the market situation, with the country currently supplied with gas.

However, the filling of gas storage facilities in Germany is at a lower level than in recent years, said a spokesman for the German ministry and noted: "In any case, we want to change this in the coming years."

All this contributed to the initial sharp rise in futures prices of the Dutch gas hub TTF by nearly 14% to 88 euros per megawatt-hour, after Friday's trading closed at around 77.50 euros.

However, there was a gradual return of blue fuel prices to 80-81 euros per megawatt-hour, which is an increase of about 4.5% during the day.

This parrying of much of the initial sharp rise in gas prices is due to still higher than normal winter temperatures across Europe, which reduces the demand for heating energy.

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