'Gazprom's supply is one factor of many.' 'Coming all together at once, have created a perfect storm, when there is not just enough gas available globally,' she said.

Katja Yafima, a senior research fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, cited a combination of factors buffering markets: natural disasters, technical outages at many LNG plants, a cold winter, and a rise in industrial demand as economies revive following the COVID-19 shutdowns. This year, however, much of that has instead been heading to Asia, where prices are even higher as much as 80 percent higher than in Europe, by some measures. Liquefied natural gas, or LNG, from North America typically would help bolster European supplies. Tight supplies have resulted in spiking prices last month, gas prices at a key trading point in the Netherlands hit a 17-year record.Д¬urrent gas prices are running about three times above what they were at this time in 2019, Freedman said and five times compared with last year, when the COVID-19 pandemic slowed or shuttered much industrial production. 'Because gas storages are usually filled in the summer before the heating season in autumn, the situation has become worrying for the Europeans,' Shagina said. Russia itself is also racing to fill its own storage ahead of the winter season.

That could put the EU in a troubling position ahead of winter if storage doesn't fill up by October, when the season to refill ends. In Germany, gas storage facilities hold just 50 percent compared to previous years. This year, supplies are at around 12 percent, versus 64 percent in past years, according to Maria Shagina, a postdoctoral fellow and political risk researcher at the Center for Eastern European Studies at the University of Zurich. That's due in part to an unusually cold late winter and early spring, which meant the season to refill storage was shortened. Natural gas reserves in the European Union are far below normal levels for this time of year. Gazprom did not immediately respond to e-mails seeking comment. 'Is there a political element here? It's actually a very difficult judgment call,' said Graham Freedman, principal analyst at Wood MacKenzie, an energy consultancy based in Edinburgh. in recent years,' she said in an e-mail to RFE/RL. 'And possibly, good old Russian posturing to reinforce the message that Europe continues to remain dependent on Russian gas despite the rise in U.S. 'The shortages may have been caused by a number of reasons - commercial interest, supply constraints in the domestic market, political interests to coerce Europe into fast-tracking the approval of' Nord Stream 2, said Aura Sabadus, a senior energy journalist with the London-based Independent Commodity Intelligence Services And they are looking toward Moscow, where Europe's single largest supplier, the Russian state-run gas giant Gazprom, already has a firm grip on market.ДЄnd that grip will tighten with the imminent completion of Gazprom's $12-billion Nord Stream 2 undersea pipeline.

Natural gas prices are way up reserves are way down winter is around the corner and energy traders, policy watchers, and regional experts are getting nervous. Typically this time of year, energy utilities across Europe are topping off their tanks, replacing old wires, locking in gas contracts, and doing the sort of routine maintenance needed to prepare for the coming winter.

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