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EMEA Natural Gas Update: Futures Edge Higher Amid Trump's Steep Economic Sanctions Against Iran

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European natural gas futures edged higher on Thursday after the US signaled steep economic sanctions against Iran, amid a lack of progress in talks between the two sides.

Front-month Dutch TTF futures rose 1.05% to 64.045 euros ($74.92) per megawatt-hour, while UK NBP futures edged up 1.18% to 158.240 British pence ($2.15) per therm.

In a Truth Social post on Thursday, US President Donald Trump said that he was announcing the "most crushing economic operation ever" against Tehran, along with "tremendous" consequences for any country that continues to do business with Iran.

This comes following Trump's earlier statement that there were no ongoing or scheduled negotiations with Tehran, while the naval blockade against the country continued to remain in place.

Iran's Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi dismissed Trump's threats, saying that the "so-called Economic D-Day" would only bring more defeat for Washington, according to a report by Al Jazeera.

Meanwhile, traffic along the strategically crucial Strait of Hormuz, which accounted for one-fifth of global LNG flows, edged higher, with 24 vessels transiting on Wednesday, according to ShipFinder data.

Daniel Hynes, a senior commodity strategist at ANZ, highlighted that Asian buyers were scrambling for LNG supplies amid the ongoing supply disruptions in the Middle East.

The situation is worse for Europe, which is increasingly competing with Asian buyers for gas supplies, while having low inventories, at just 61.61% of capacity, compared to 74.24% during the corresponding period a year ago, according to Gas Infrastructure Europe.

Inventories were also significantly below the five-year average for this period, at 78.7%, according to the Swiss Federal Office of Energy.

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