European gas surges as U.S. strikes Iran’s Qeshm Island

European wholesale natural gas prices surged on Tuesday, erasing much of the previous session’s steep losses after U.S. military strikes on Iran’s Qeshm Island and the breakdown of regional diplomatic talks reignited acute fears of supply disruptions through the Strait of Hormuz.

The benchmark Dutch Title Transfer Facility (TTF) front-month contract jumped 4% to trade at 98.60 euros per megawatt-hour (MWh), staging an aggressive rebound after logging its sharpest single-day decline since March on Monday.

Across the Channel, the British equivalent NBP futures contract surged 4.5% to 245.60 pence per therm, recovering rapidly after recording its worst daily sell-off since June. The rebound followed a rapid unraveling of diplomatic optimism that had triggered heavy profit-taking across energy complexes only 24 hours earlier.

Hopes that high-level talks between Iranian and Qatari officials would yield an off-ramp to end the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran were dashed after a U.S. official confirmed that Washington carried out strikes against Iranian assets on Qeshm Island, situated directly in the Strait of Hormuz. U.S. officials characterized the operation as defensive and intended to prevent Iranian forces from targeting commercial merchant vessels.

This story was originally published by Hellenic Shipping News. Read the full story at Hellenic Shipping News →