Benchmark European natural gas prices rose 6% at the opening of trading in Amsterdam on Monday as the worsening security situation in the Middle East fueled fresh concern about the recovery of energy flows.
The front-month contract at the Dutch Title Transfer Facility (TTF), the main benchmark for gas trading in Europe, was up 6% as of 7:50 a.m. Amsterdam time on Monday. The price reached $97.31, or 84.275 euros per megawatt-hour (MWh), the highest level since the 2022-2023 crisis.
That level is now above the prices seen in January 2023, when Europe was going through its first winter without most Russian pipeline gas supplies.
The latest jump extends a run of five consecutive weeks of gains. Market anxiety intensified after Saudi Arabia shut down its key East-West oil pipeline over the weekend, a route that helps it bypass the Strait of Hormuz.
European gas prices are also being supported by relatively low storage levels. Gas storage sites across Europe are less than 70% full, compared with 82% at the same time in 2025 and a five-year average of above 80%.
Europe is approaching winter with one of the lowest gas-in-storage levels in the past two decades. According to the source, the war in the Middle East has disrupted LNG supply from Qatar, sent gas and LNG prices in Europe and Asia sharply higher, and intensified competition for globally available cargoes that do not need to pass through geopolitically sensitive chokepoints.
Go Katayama, principal insight analyst for LNG at Kpler, told Bloomberg earlier that the risk of a global “fight for fuel” is real, particularly in a colder winter.
Another sign of mounting competition came last week, when Asia’s spot LNG price climbed to its highest level since 2022. Ole Hansen, Head of Commodity Strategy at Saxo Bank, had said that the disruption forced buyers in Europe and Asia to compete more aggressively for alternative cargoes, helping push European natural gas above the equivalent of USD 140 per barrel of oil.
