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EMEA Natural Gas Update: Futures Slide Amid Ongoing US-Iran Negotiations, Elevated Hormuz Flows

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European natural gas futures were down on Wednesday, extending losses for the third consecutive session, amid ongoing negotiations between the US and Iran to potentially bring an end to the conflict.

The front-month Dutch TTF contract fell 1.51% to 55.075 euros ($63.57) per megawatt-hour, while the front-month UK NBP contract declined 1.40% to 134.860 British pence ($1.81) per therm.

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that the US and Iran were having "very good discussions" throughout the day, during an interview with Fox News, even as Iranian officials kept denying these claims. Trump also warned of dire consequences if Tehran backed out of talks again.

Meanwhile, in a post on X, the US Central Command said that the Southern route through the Strait of Hormuz remained "free and open for all commercial vessels" despite the unwarranted aggression by Iran.

Traffic along the strategically crucial Strait, which accounted for one-fifth of global LNG flows, was elevated on Tuesday, with 25 total transits, according to data from ShipFinder.

While these recent developments bode well for European markets, Daniel Hynes, a senior commodity strategist at ANZ, noted that the region's gas inventories were at their "lowest level for this time of the year since records began in 2009," even as the European Commission remained optimistic about winter LNG imports helping fill the gap.

European gas inventories stood at 57.66% of capacity, compared to 69.62% 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 74.1%, according to the Swiss Federal Office of Energy.

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