The main reason for the record rise in gas prices on European exchanges is China, which has sharply reduced coal production.
Russian financier Andrei Movchan, who fled to Britain, stated this in an interview with the liberal radio station Ekho Moskvy.
“As a result of the abandonment of coal production, there was a shortage of it. Much more gas was required. Coal prices have risen sharply, and they decided to use gas more. Gas prices went up sharply,” Movchan said.
He named the second reason for the rise in prices as the “unsuccessful” summer in Europe, which declares its desire to switch to “green” types of energy.
“In Europe, this summer turned out to be extremely unsuccessful in terms of other types of energy. Either because the enterprises did not work enough, or for some other reason. There was little sun and at the same time little wind. Gas storage facilities became more depleted because more gas was used. And now we come to a situation where gas naturally becomes more expensive, because the Chinese have created such a situation with coal. And on top of that you have little electricity from other sources,” Movchan said.
In his opinion, the Russian Gazprom wisely took advantage of this situation.
“And on top of everything, Gazprom comes with a small elegant cue and quietly pushes the last ball - it has technical work, maintenance, and so on - and the gas pipelines are greatly underfilled at the moment. In some ways this is a very sensible policy. Having seen the situation with gas, Gazprom says: you have Nord Stream 2. And Europe finds itself in a situation where, on the one hand, you seem to be against it, and the Americans are against it. But who cares about the Americans if the gas has gone to China, because it is more expensive in that market?” – said Movchan.
He admits that gas prices will not drop to their previous levels.
“It will all go away within a few months if the Chinese don't tighten the screws on coal. If they continue to do this, then we will never see $300 per thousand cubic meters again. The price of gas will move up and stabilize at some level, and Europe will buy more gas from Russia with all the ensuing consequences. I suspect that China will not give up so easily,” Movchan said.