European gas futures jumped today, Monday, by 13.7% above the level of $1,000 per thousand cubic meters.
Gas prices were affected by what the United States announced that Russia might invade Ukraine soon or try to provoke conflict within its borders.
And trading showed that the price of the March futures contract in the (TTF) center in the Netherlands rose to the level of 1031.8 dollars per thousand cubic meters.
Russia sends an estimated 230 million cubic meters of gas to Europe each day, about a third of which goes west through Ukraine.
Experts are divided over whether Russia is likely to disrupt all gas exports to Europe, or those that rely solely on Ukrainian gas pipelines.
US officials have confirmed that the government is in regular discussions with a number of countries and companies in Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and Asia about exporting natural gas to Europe, if The Russian invasion of Ukraine led to a shortage of supplies.
Europe faces difficult and delicate choices in terms of energy supplies, if the Ukrainian crisis worsens and leads to the interruption of Russian gas supplies.
