Natural gas prices in Europe fell on Thursday after Russia resumed the flow of gas through theNord Stream 1 line.
Natural gas supplies to Germany and Western Europe were disrupted last week for a 10-day maintenance period. Many politicians thought that Russia wouldn't restart the flows.
Insider was told on Thursday that flows were back to normal.
Nord Stream AG successfully completed all planned maintenance work on its twin gas pipes. The consortium said that gas transmission resumed on July 21st.
There were 29 million kilowatt hours of gas flowing over one hour on Thursday. This time last year, 40% of the gas was moving through the line, which is in line withflows before the maintenance period began.
The price of natural gas has gone up in Europe, putting pressure on the EU's economy. In 2020, natural gas and manufactured gasses accounted for 22% of the EU's final energy consumption.
The benchmark Dutch TTF natural gas futures price fell on Thursday after the restart of the Nord Stream flows. It was around 600% higher than a year ago.
Analysts say a stop in Russian natural gas flows could spell disaster for the European economy. Russia blamed sanctions for holding up the delivery of a piece of equipment from Canada, which led to the reduction of supplies through the Nord Stream line.
On Thursday, some of the economic fears will have been alleviated.
There can be no guarantee that European dependency on Russian gas won't be used as leverage in the future. There is an energy crunch over winter.
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