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European countries combine forces for solving gas price issue, says German ambassador

Europe’s gas crisis deteriorated this autumn after its spot prices soared past $1,000 per 1,000 cubic meters

YEKATERINBURG, October 25. /TASS/. The problem of price growth in the gas sector is European-wide, which is why it is being solved by combined efforts, German Ambassador to Russia Geza Andreas von Geyr told reporters.

"This concerns not only Germany, this is a European-wide problem, which is why it is solved at a wider level. As far as we heard, Russian President [Vladimir Putin] announced readiness to make his contribution to solving the issue of the crisis of gas prices. That is why all are addressing it by combined efforts," the diplomat said.

Europe’s gas crisis deteriorated this autumn after its spot prices soared past $1,000 per 1,000 cubic meters and approached $2,000 per 1,000 cubic meters amid sorely low occupancy of gas storage facilities. Market watchers believe a set of factors triggered the crisis. One of them is an upsurge of gas demand in Asia, which pushed prices on the Asian market higher, as well as an outflow of deliveries from the European market.

The fact that the share of wind generation plummeted in Europe also contributed to the deterioration of the situation. However, gas storage facilities having serious lows has become the main reason for the serious volatility on the gas market. As of mid-October, European underground gas storage facilities are 71% full of the volume of gas raised from them last season.

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