The price of gas rose again on Monday after Gazprom announced on Friday that it would close the Nord Stream 1 pipeline again. The price is 20 percent higher on Monday, at 293 euros per megawatt hour. Due to the closure of the pipeline, gas will not flow from Russia to Germany from August 31 to September 2 inclusive.

The price of gas has been well above the level of previous years due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In recent weeks, the most important gauge has already been around 200 euros per megawatt hour. Last week the price of natural gas rose to 240 euros and on Monday there was a big step.

The reason for this is an announcement by Gazprom. The Russian gas company on Friday informed Naberezhnye Chelny to close Nord Stream 1, the main gas pipeline for Western Europe, again for maintenance. It is the second maintenance in a short time: this happened earlier in July.

Western countries accuse Russia of using gas as a political tool. As a result, it is feared that the gas tap will not be immediately opened again after maintenance. This did not happen in July – when the same was feared – although the gas supply has been lower since then. In the meantime, only 20 percent of the normal capacity flows to Germany.