Gas: the price once again fell by 4 to 6 euros per megawatt hour in April

Good news for gas subscribers whose contract is indexed to the benchmark price. The Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE) has just published the benchmark gas price for the month of April. This price, excluding taxes, is down by 5.59 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) for a consumer with a cooking/hot water subscription and by 4.16 MWh for a “heating” subscriber. “The drop in the variable part observable over the past 4 months therefore continues despite the increase on April 1 in the transport and storage components,” notes the CRE, which highlights the continued drop in wholesale gas prices.

As a reminder, the variable portion of the gas bill, all taxes included, increased in January due to the increase in the domestic tax on natural gas consumption. This increase was offset by the decline in wholesale gas prices. Thus, the average benchmark price excluding VAT for an average heating type consumer is down 5.4% between March and April 2024, going from 78.94 euros per MWh to 74.73 euros per MWh. The average benchmark price including tax for this same consumer fell by 4.5% between March and April 2024, going from 114.76 euros per MWh to 109.71 euros per MWh.

For the record, the regulated gas sales prices ended on June 30, 2023. The benchmark price published by the CRE “is intended to serve as a compass for consumers who wish to compare supply offers.(...)Suppliers freely construct their offers based on their supply conditions, their commercial choices, but also the contractual conditions they propose.”