Oil & Energy
EMEA Natural Gas Update: Futures Rise Roughly 2% as Tensions in Strait of Hormuz Continue to Rise
European natural gas futures were up on Friday amid fears of prolonged disruptions to LNG deliveries via the Strait of Hormuz, as tensions continued to remain elevated in the Middle East.Front-month Dutch TTF contracts rose 1.98% to 45.37 euros ($53.03) per megawatt hour, while UK NBP futures advanced 2.29% to 113.43 British pence ($1.52) per therm.In a Truth Social post on Thursday, US President Donald Trump said he had ordered the US Navy to "shoot and kill any boat" laying mines in the strait.On Friday, Esmail Saqab Esfahani, a deputy to Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkia, warned that any attack against Iran's energy infrastructure would be met with retaliatory strikes against Saudi Arabia."Our list of targets is clear; if any of our oil wells are hit, we will target one of Saudi Arabia's oil phases and respond accordingly," he said, according to a report by the Times of India.Meanwhile, traffic in the strait has effectively come to a standstill, with just five vessels transiting over the past 24 hours, according to the Hormuz Strait Monitor.Michiel Engelaar, a Senior Finance Executive at Blue Water Strategy, warned that the "era of cheap, abundant, politically neutral gas is over," citing damage to Qatar's Ras Laffan LNG facility, the prolonged disruption in the Strait, and Europe's heavy dependence on US LNG supplies.All of this comes at a time when Europe is stepping into reinjection season, with significantly depleted inventories, at just 30.82% of capacity, compared to 37.54% during the corresponding period a year ago, according to Gas Infrastructure Europe.