MOSCOW, December 23. /TASS/. The price of gas in Europe went down below $920 per thousand cubic meters during Friday trading for the first time since October 25, according to London’s ICE. The gas price has decreased by around 8% in total since the start of trading day.

January futures at the TTF hub in the Netherlands fell to $919.6 per thousand cubic meters, or to 83.9 euro per MWh (on the basis of the current euro exchange rate against the dollar, prices at ICE are in euro per MWh).

The temperature in most European countries above the climate normal this week has notably reduced gas consumption in the region, leading to a decrease in gas withdrawal from underground gas storage (UGS) facilities. Moreover, the occupancy rate of European UGS facilities remains high for the current period despite last week’s record withdrawal rates. Currently the UGS facilities are 83.02% full (10.51 percentage points higher than the average as of this date in the past five years), with 89.85 bln cubic meters of gas stored in them.