European natural gas futures were up on Tuesday, ahead of indirect US-Iran peace talks that are scheduled to be held in Doha.
The front-month Dutch TTF contract was up 2.45% to 43.660 euros ($49.77) per megawatt-hour, while the UK NBP front-month was up 2.47% to 105.090 British pence ($1.39) per therm.
This comes amid reports that there will be no direct meetings between US and Iranian officials, with both sides set only to meet Qatari officials, according to a report by Al Jazeera.
Iran's Foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei has said there was no meeting scheduled between US envoys, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, who are already in Qatar's capital city, over the next few days.
Meanwhile, the Strait of Hormuz, which accounted for one-fifth of global LNG flows before the Iran war, remained effectively shut for the 17th week running, with just five vessels transiting over the past 24 hours, according to the Hormuz Strait Monitor.
Qatar's Ministry of Transport announced a temporary suspension of all maritime movements in response to recent hostilities, as a precautionary measure, according to a report by The Peninsula Qatar.
This comes just days after the country began ramping up its output and exports, following progress in the US-Iran peace talks.
Daniel Hynes, a senior commodity strategist at ANZ, warned that European LNG markets were poised to see tighter fundamentals over the next couple of months, as "China re-enters the market."
Europe is currently operating with a thin inventory buffer, at just 48.62% of capacity, compared to 58.18% 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 63.2%, according to the Swiss Federal Office of Energy.
The region is experiencing an unprecedented heatwave, with temperatures across France, UK, Germany and Switzerland touching as high as 40 degrees Celcius, according to Severe-Weather EU, sparking a surge in air conditioner use and raising consumption of power generated with gas.