The European spot price for gas dipped into negative territory yesterday. Yes, you read that right: natural gas, that prized energy commodity that Russia has weaponised in its economic war with Europe, was for a moment less than worthless. What was that about scarcity pricing? Rejoice, crisis averted! Right?
Not quite. It’s a lot more complex than that. The spot (hour-ahead) price of gas traded on Dutch gas hub TTF briefly dipped below zero on Monday, before quickly rebounding into the black: