The prices of gas futures for September delivery during the trading session on July 4 set a record - for the first time since March 10, the price rose to $ 1,774.6 per thousand cubic meters, according to the London ICE exchange.

Growth compared to the closing level of the previous trading session amounted to 7.4 percent. As of press time, gas prices have declined slightly, reaching $1,766 per 1,000 cubic meters.

The rise in price comes against the backdrop of a strike planned for July 5 by employees of the oil and gas industry in Norway, Bloomberg reports. The action will stop 13 percent of the country's total supply. The Norwegian oil and gas employers' association Norsk olje og gass noted that due to the strike of workers at Equinor on the night of Monday to Tuesday, the work of three platforms on the continental shelf in the North Sea will have to be stopped.

At the end of June, Norway and the European Union (EU) agreed to strengthen energy cooperation - the country promised to increase gas supplies to the region. According to the Norwegian Ministry of Oil and Energy, the country is the largest producer of oil and gas in Europe, which makes its role in the energy security of the region especially significant. Companies on the Norwegian Continental Shelf are operating at very high capacity, with gas supplies projected to increase by around 100 terawatt-hours from 2021 to 2022.