Europe’s benchmark natural gas prices jumped by 6% at Monday market opening in Amsterdam as oil prices rallied amid the escalation in the Middle East that threatens the recovery of energy flows.
The front-month price at the Dutch Title Transfer Facility (TTF), the benchmark for Europe’s gas trading, soared by 6% as of 7:50 a.m. Amsterdam time on Monday, to hit the highest level since the 2022-2023 crisis.
At $97.31 (84.275 euros) per megawatt-hour (MWh), the price now exceeds the January 2023 levels, when Europe faced the first winter without most of the Russian pipeline gas supply.
Gas prices in Europe, fresh off five consecutive weeks of weekly gains, continued their rally on Monday, as risks to supply of oil and gas in the Middle East materially increased over the weekend after Saudi Arabia shut down its key East-West oil pipeline that helps it bypass the Strait of Hormuz.
European gas prices have rallied in recent weeks as gas storage sites across Europe are less than 70% full compared to 82% for this time of year in 2025 and a five-year average of above 80%.
Europe is heading into winter with one of the lowest levels of gas in storage in the past two decades as the war in the Middle East crippled LNG supply from Qatar, sent gas and LNG prices in Europe and Asia skyrocketing, and intensified competition for readily available global LNG cargoes that don’t need to cross geopolitically charged chokepoints.
“The potential for a global ‘fight for fuel’ is there, particularly in a colder winter,” Go Katayama, principal insight analyst for LNG at intelligence firm Kpler, told Bloomberg earlier this month.
In a sign of intensifying competition, Asia’s spot LNG price surged last week to the highest level since 2022.
“The disruption has forced buyers in Europe and Asia to compete more aggressively for alternative cargoes and has helped push European natural gas above USD 140 per barrel equivalent,” Ole Hansen, Head of Commodity Strategy at Saxo Bank, said last week.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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