EU Gas Crosses €100/MWh for First Time Since 2022 as Storage Falls to Record Low
November 2, 2026 · Frisian News
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
European wholesale gas prices crossed €100 per megawatt-hour on October 28 for the first time since late 2022. EU storage sits at 75 percent full, the lowest seasonal level since records began in 2011, as Brussels admits it has few tools left to contain the crisis.
European wholesale gas prices crossed €100 per megawatt-hour on October 28, Dutch TTF front-month contract data show, hitting a level not seen since late 2022 and arriving three days before the bloc's usual 90 percent storage target date of November 1.
It arrived nowhere close. EU storage stood at roughly 75 percent in late October, the lowest seasonal level since records began in 2011, according to CNBC and rmx.news. Facilities ended the previous winter at just 28 percent full, rmx.news reports, making this summer's refill effort slow and expensive. Austria, Slovakia and the Czech Republic have already begun drawing on reserves as temperatures drop.
Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen said on October 28: "Once again, due to geopolitical turbulence, Europe faces another energy crisis. We know that this winter will be difficult for European citizens and for our economy in general." He noted that nearly 50 million Europeans are already unable to heat their homes adequately in a typical year and warned that number could rise.
Hungarian MEP Balázs Orbán named the contradiction directly. "This is idiocracy," he wrote on October 29. "You are financing a war that involves restricting Europe's energy supply through sanctions and destroying infrastructure that produces and transports oil, gas, and fuel accessible to Europe by land. On top of that, you have imposed, through regulation, an energy transition that makes energy more expensive for European businesses and households alike." Citing a Politico report, he added: "You created the problem. You have no idea how to solve it."
The numbers support that reading. Prices have roughly tripled since the start of the year, up from around €32 per MWh before conflict escalated in the Middle East earlier in 2026, rmx.news reports. CNBC put the month-on-month rise at around 36 percent and the year-to-date gain at 256 percent. Goldman Sachs projected prices could reach €150 per MWh if a cold winter combines with continued supply constraints, rmx.news reports. BlackRock analysts wrote, in a note cited by CNBC, that the energy shock has reduced European GDP by around 0.5 percent, compared with 0.1 percent in the United States, which benefits from domestic shale and LNG production.
Britain faces a parallel squeeze. The Guardian reports the UK month-ahead gas contract rose 4 percent to 240p a therm, its highest since December 2022. British households face a 16 percent bill increase in January, bringing the typical annual dual-fuel bill to around £2,000. The Office for National Statistics found the UK paid a record £4 billion on power imports in the year ending August, with half spent on electricity from France. The country holds some of the smallest gas stores in Europe after decades of relying on homegrown North Sea production.
Poland is moving to act. Finance and Economy Minister Andrzej Domański said on October 29 that Warsaw is working on measures to shield households, with details expected in November. The current regulated household tariff sits at 197.29 złoty per MWh, extended through the end of 2026. Michał Kozak of DM Trigon estimated that a full pass-through of higher wholesale costs could push the 2027 tariff up by around 35 percent, into the 230 to 300 złoty range. Poland enters winter better placed than most, with domestic storage near 99 percent full.
Jørgensen stressed that Europe is better prepared than in 2022, noting that gas consumption is now about 18 percent lower and Russian supply has fallen from around 45 percent of the total. Higher fossil-fuel costs since late February have added an estimated €100 billion to the EU's import bill, with €18 to €33 billion of that in gas alone, rmx.news reports. EU energy ministers met in Luxembourg on October 29 to discuss security of supply. Officials acknowledged that few short-term tools remain after earlier subsidies, demand measures and releases from emergency oil stocks.
Published November 2, 2026 · Frisian News