{"id":1781124,"date":"2022-12-20T07:51:07","date_gmt":"2022-12-20T12:51:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1781124"},"modified":"2022-12-20T08:48:40","modified_gmt":"2022-12-20T13:48:40","slug":"eu-nations-agree-on-gas-price-cap-to-contain-energy-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/eu-nations-agree-on-gas-price-cap-to-contain-energy-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"EU Nations Agree on Gas Price Cap to Contain Energy Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Feu-nations-agree-on-gas-price-cap-to-contain-energy-crisis%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1781124&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/0280afbe13b5290926c360c10545cb3a\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\"   style=\"display:none\"><\/div>\n<p>By Kate Abnett<\/p>\n<p>BRUSSELS (Reuters) -European Union energy ministers on Monday agreed a gas price cap, after weeks of talks on the emergency measure that has split opinion across the bloc as it seeks to tame the energy crisis.<\/p>\n<p>The cap is the 27-country EU&#8217;s latest attempt to lower gas prices that have pushed energy bills higher and driven record-high inflation this year after Russia cut off most of its gas deliveries to Europe.<\/p>\n<p>Ministers agreed to trigger a cap if prices exceed 180 euros ($191.11) per megawatt hour for three days on the Dutch Title Transfer Facility (TTF) gas hub&#8217;s front-month contract, which serves as the European benchmark.<\/p>\n<p>The TTF price must also be 35 eur\/MWh higher than a reference price based on existing liquefied natural gas (LNG) price assessments for three days.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We have succeeded in finding an important agreement that will shield citizens from skyrocketing energy prices,&#8221; said Jozef Sikela, industry minister for the Czech Republic, which holds the rotating EU presidency.<\/p>\n<p>The cap can be triggered starting from Feb. 15, 2023. The deal will be formally approved by countries in writing, after which it can enter into force.<\/p>\n<p>Once triggered, trades would not be permitted on the front-month, three-month and front-year TTF contracts at a price more than 35 euros\/MWh above the reference LNG price.<\/p>\n<p>This effectively caps the price at which gas can be traded, while allowing the capped level to fluctuate alongside global LNG prices &#8211; a system designed to ensure EU countries can still bid at competitive prices for gas in from global markets.<\/p>\n<p>Germany voted to support the deal, despite having raised concerns about the policy&#8217;s impact on Europe&#8217;s ability to attract gas supplies in price-competitive global markets, three EU officials said.<\/p>\n<p>An EU official told Reuters Germany agreed to the price cap after countries agreed changes to another regulation on speeding up renewable energy permits, and stronger safeguards were added to the cap.<\/p>\n<p>Those safeguards include that the cap will be suspended if the EU faces a gas supply shortage, or if the cap causes a drop in TTF trading, a jump in gas use or a significant increase in gas market participants&#8217; margin calls.<\/p>\n<p>Soaring power and gas prices have rocked energy companies across Europe, forcing utilities and traders to secure extra funds from governments and banks to cover margin call requirements.<\/p>\n<p>Germany&#8217;s Uniper has booked billions of euros of losses on derivatives, exacerbating a crisis as it rushed to fill the gap left after Russia cut supplies.<\/p>\n<p>Jacob Mandel, senior associate at Aurora Energy Research, said the TTF front-month contract has rarely closed above 180 eur\/MWh, noting this has occurred on 64 days in its history. All of those were in 2022.<\/p>\n<p>MONTHS OF DEBATE, WEEKS OF MEETINGS<\/p>\n<p>Two EU officials said only Hungary voted against the price cap.<\/p>\n<p>The Netherlands and Austria abstained. Both had resisted the cap during negotiations, fearing it could disrupt Europe&#8217;s energy markets and compromise Europe&#8217;s energy security.<\/p>\n<p>Dutch energy minister Rob Jetten said: &#8220;Despite progress the last couple of weeks, the market correction mechanism remains potentially unsafe.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I remain worried about major disruptions on the European energy market, about the financial implications and, most of all, I am worried about European security of supply,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p>The EU proposal has also drawn opposition from some market participants, who have said it could cause financial instability.<\/p>\n<p>The Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), which hosts TTF trading on its Amsterdam exchange, last week said it could move TTF trading to outside of the EU if the bloc capped prices.<\/p>\n<p>On Monday, it said it will assess whether it can continue to operate fair and orderly markets for TTF gas hub trading. For now, ICE TTF markets will continue trading as normal.<\/p>\n<p>The front month TTF gas price closed trading on Monday 9% lower, at 107 euros\/MWh, Refinitiv Eikon data showed.<\/p>\n<p>The contract hit a record high of 343 euros in August &#8211; a price spike that prompted the EU to move ahead with its price cap.<\/p>\n<p>Italy&#8217;s energy authority ARERA expects further increases in gas prices as the winter season kicks in, its President Stefano Besseghini said on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Russia&#8217;s Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the cap was an attack on market pricing, and unacceptable, Russia&#8217;s Interfax news agency reported.<\/p>\n<p>The deal follows months of debate on the idea and two previous emergency meetings that failed to clinch an agreement among EU countries that disagreed on whether a price cap would help or hinder Europe&#8217;s attempts to contain the energy crisis.<\/p>\n<p>Roughly 15 countries, including Belgium, Greece and Poland, had demanded a cap below 200 euros\/MWh &#8211; far lower than the 275 euros\/MWh trigger limit originally proposed by the European Commission last month.<\/p>\n<p>Poland&#8217;s prime minister said the price cap would end Russia and Gazprom&#8217;s ability to distort the market.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;At the recent meetings in Brussels, our majority coalition managed to break the resistance &#8211; mainly from Germany,&#8221; Mateusz Morawiecki wrote on Twitter. &#8220;This means the end of market manipulation by Russia and its company Gazprom.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>($1 = 0.9419 euros)<\/p>\n<p>(Reporting by Kate Abnett; additional reporting by Gabriela Baczynska, Bart Meijer, Tassilo Hummel, Toby Sterling, Nina Chestney, Alan Charlish, Anna Koper and Jan Lopatka; writing by Nina Chestney; Editing by John Stonestreet, David Goodman, Bernadette Baum, Barbara Lewis and Cynthia Osterman)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Kate AbnettBRUSSELS (Reuters) -European Union energy ministers on Monday agreed a gas price cap, after weeks of talks on the emergency measure that has split opinion across the bloc<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1781127,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[10389,5458,8021,6170,4486,7536,5771,7145,3819],"class_list":["post-1781124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report","tag-agree","tag-bongino","tag-cap","tag-crisis","tag-energy","tag-gas","tag-nations","tag-price","tag-report"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1781124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1781124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1781124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1781127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1781124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1781124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1781124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}