Javier Blas: Europe's gas crisis is worse than it looks

A year into Russia manipulating European gas supplies, the market is finally convinced that Moscow will continue to do so, and perhaps with greater intensity.

It’s not just companies paying the price of the European gas-price curve repricing at a much higher level compared with March. Consumers are also suffering.

European natural gas prices are still well below the all-time high set in March. Dig a bit deeper, however, and they are signaling a more protracted disruption than markets anticipated in the immediate aftermath of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

While the gas market then priced in a short-lived crisis, lasting perhaps a couple of months, it’s now flashing extreme danger for next winter, through 2023 and, increasingly, into 2024. Over the last few days, the whole European gas price curve has repriced at a much higher level.