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EMEA Natural Gas Update: Futures Rise on Vance's Remarks, Iran's Hormuz Talks With Oman

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European natural gas futures were up on Thursday, rebounding from a three-week low, after the latest comments by US Vice President JD Vance on negotiations between Washington and Tehran.

The front-month Dutch TTF contract was up 4.01% to 54.505 euros ($62.89) per megawatt-hour, while the front-month UK NBP contract rose 4.26% to 133.490 British pence ($1.80) per therm.

On Wednesday, Vance said that talks with Iran would be "messy" and would take time to conclude, while appearing on Fox News. He also noted that Iran's system was "fractured," with some "crazy radicals" in the country who wanted the war to continue.

Meanwhile, Iran said that it had reached an understanding with Oman over a viable shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz, with plans "on the verge of being finalised," the country's Deputy Foreign Minister, Kazem Gharibabadi, said, according to Al Jazeera.

Traffic along the Strait, crucial to global energy, held steady with 19 crossings on Wednesday, according to ShipFinder.

Daniel Hynes, a senior commodity strategist at ANZ, noted that three LNG tankers were docked at Qatar's Ras Laffan Facility, citing ship-tracking data from Bloomberg, which he said indicated the major LNG exporter was ready to resume production.

Hynes, however, noted that the low gas inventory levels across Europe were keeping prices elevated, especially amid rising competition from Asian buyers.

European gas inventories stood at 57.87% of capacity, compared to 69.96% 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 74.4%, according to the Swiss Federal Office of Energy.

This comes amid the presence of a heat dome across Central Europe and the Balkans, sending temperatures north of 40 degrees Celsius, according to Severe-Weather EU, leading to increased space cooling demand.

At the same time, as river levels dip due to the prolonged heatwave, nuclear power stations across Europe are reducing output as a lack of water resources limits their ability to cool reactors.

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