ATHENS – Temperatures across Europe likely will plummet this month after a relatively mild November, and the heightened pressure on natural-gas supplies will test the region’s fragile energy networks.
A milder-than-normal autumn allowed utilities to refill their gas tanks, and the first prolonged cold spell will stress that storage. Benchmark European gas contracts are four times higher than normal for this time of year, leaving industry and households facing soaring costs. The cooler conditions expected in Europe are due to an asymmetric, weaker polar vortex and an ongoing split of the vortex at lower levels, Marex meteorologist Alexandre Fierro said. That will boost power demand for heating.
Autumn in Europe has been unseasonably warm, helping keep gas in storage facilities, which are now about 94 per cent full across the continent. Germany’s sites are almost 99 per cent full.