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EMEA Natural Gas Update: Futures Rally Nearly 6% Amid Renewed Middle East Hostilities

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European natural gas futures rose on Wednesday to their highest level in more than a month as renewed Middle East tensions resurfaced concerns over potential supply constraints.

The front-month Dutch TTF contract gained 5.60% to trade at 49.185 euros ($56.14) per megawatt hour, while UK NBP futures rose 5.54% to 116.890 British pence ($1.56) per therm.

As reported by, Iranian forces struck a Qatari LNG tanker, Al Rekayyat, in the Strait of Hormuz during the early hours of Tuesday. Two other commercial vessels were also struck in the Strait, just days after the US and Iran signed a Memorandum of Understanding.

The US has since responded with "powerful strikes" against Iran, with Tehran responding in kind, saying that it had targeted "85 US military installations" in retaliation, according to an Al Jazeera report.

Meanwhile, traffic through the strategically crucial Strait of Hormuz, which accounted for one-fifth of global LNG flows, continued to remain elevated, with 34 vessels transiting over the past 24 hours, according to the Hormuz Strait Monitor.

However, according to Daniel Hynes, a senior commodity strategist at ANZ, recovery LNG traffic through the strait has lagged behind oil so far, with the recent attacks making matters worse for global LNG markets.

Hynes attributed this to LNG voyages requiring greater confidence from "insurers, shipowners and buyers," since they often involve highly specialized vessels and cargoes.

These recent developments are particularly concerning for European markets due to their low inventories, at just 50.63% of capacity, compared to 60.65% the corresponding period a year ago, according to Gas Infrastructure Europe.

Inventories were also significantly below the five-year average for this period, at 65.7%, according to the Swiss Federal Office of Energy.

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