Natural gas futures in Europe on Thursday morning closed close to the mark of 3100 dollars per thousand cubic meters, which – for the first time since March – they reached in trading on Wednesday night, according to data from the London Stock Exchange ICE.

The nearest futures (for the TTF index of Europe’s largest hub) opened trading at just above $3,080 (+3%). Prices are increasing by 4.2%, amounting to $314.9 per thousand cubic meters. The quotes are based on the previous day’s settlement price of $2,990.6 – a record high for the whole period of gas hubs functioning in Europe since 1996.

The price volatility on European gas markets is linked to uncertainty about the security of gas supplies. Gazprom said Friday that Nord Stream will shut down for three days, from Aug. 31 to Sept. 2, because of routine maintenance of its only operational gas compressor unit at its Portovaya compressor station. September gas futures contracts (TTF) were jumping almost 8% Friday night on the news, above $2,700 per thousand cubic meters.

However, European natural gas futures prices started to grow noticeably last spring, when the average TTF spot price fluctuated between $250 and $300 per thousand cubic meters. In late summer the day-ahead contract price exceeded $600, and in early October it was already $1,000.

Experts associated such price growth with several factors: high demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG) in Asia; limited supply from main suppliers, and low level of filling of European underground gas storages after a long cold winter and hot summer.

Meanwhile, the situation on the stock market continues to deteriorate. This is especially true for Meta. Meta is going to focus investments on a small number of priority growth areas in 2023. Although Zuckerberg claims that Facebook has more active users than ever before, investors remain concerned about the company’s multibillion-dollar investment in Metaverse. Meta’s virtual reality division lost $3.7 billion last quarter and a total of $9.4 billion this year. Facebook stock price history shows that the current price is the lowest since 2016. Meta’s market value fell from $1 trillion to $268 billion.

Earlier, we reported that LNG prices will rise for another two years.