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EMEA Natural Gas Update: Futures Slide 4% After Reports of Iran-Oman Talks Reaching Advanced Stages

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European natural gas futures slid on Tuesday, after Qatar said that talks between Iran and Oman, over the Strait of Hormuz reached advanced stages.

Front-month Dutch TTF contracts dropped 4.00% to 58.365 euros ($67.35) per megawatt-hour, while UK NBP futures dropped 4.13% to 143.530 British pence ($1.94) per therm.

Majed al-Ansari, the spokesperson for Qatar's Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that negotiations between Iran and Oman, over the future of shipping along the Strait of Hormuz had reached advanced stages, according to a report by Al Jazeera.

Meanwhile, Iran's Foreign Minister, Seyed Abbas Araghchi, briefed his German counterpart, Johann Wadephul on the same, noting that the ongoing discussions with Oman were centered on finding a safe route for maritime traffic along the strategically crucial Strait, according to Iran's Tasnim News Agency.

Araghchi also said that the prevailing security issues along the Strait were the result of US aggression, while calling for an end to the US naval blockade against Iran to ensure safety and security in the waterway.

Traffic along the strategically crucial Strait of Hormuz, which accounted for one-fifth of global LNG flows, stood at 14 on Monday, according to data from ShipFinder.

Daniel Hynes, a senior commodity strategist at ANZ, warned that as the back-and-forth between the US and Iran continued to drag on, Europe was "running out of time" to refill its worn-down inventories ahead of the upcoming winter, with less than three months left.

European gas inventories stood at 59.12% of capacity, compared to 71.57% 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 75.9%, according to the Swiss Federal Office of Energy.

A total Solar Eclipse is set to sweep across Greenland, Iceland and Spain on Wednesday, during which solar power output is expected to dip.

Spain's grid operator, Red Electrica, has warned about a temporary drop of 5 gigwatts in solar power generation over the duration of the eclipse.

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