\n<\/p>\n
European gas prices have hit a four-month high as the escalation of the conflict in the Middle East raises fears of supply shortages this winter.<\/p>\n
The Dutch natural gas benchmark briefly rose above \u20ac60 a megawatt hour (MWh) on Monday, near the peaks seen at the start of the US-Iran conflict, after the US expanded its aerial offensive and Iran retaliated with strikes on Bahrain and Kuwait.<\/p>\n
Analysts at Independent Commodity Intelligence Services (ICIS) said Europe\u2019s gas supplies were facing pressure this winter, with the conflict delaying the expected recovery of Qatari liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports in the critical summer storage season.<\/p>\n
\u201cA cold winter start would substantially increase the cost of meeting the EU\u2019s 80% storage target,\u201d said Andreas Schroeder, the head of energy analytics at ICIS. \u201cWhile security of supply remains achievable, the cost of achieving it rises sharply.\u201d<\/p>\n
The market intelligence firm added that if the price of gas stayed at about \u20ac60 a MWh it could mean \u201cpotentially costly state intervention to safeguard security of supply\u201d, although its modelling suggested European gas storage could still reach targets by late November.<\/p>\n
<\/span>US troops killed: has Trump lost control of Iran war? – The Latest<\/span><\/p>\n European gas storage is now less than 54% full, compared with 64% at the same point last year.<\/p>\n ICIS calculated that just 26 LNG cargoes had managed to cross east out of the Gulf since the conflict began on 28 February, compared with the usual 90 to 100 each month.<\/p>\n European countries may have to pay about \u20ac54 a MWh this autumn to restock supplies, and up to \u20ac60 a MWh if a colder start to winter materialises.<\/p>\n The disruption to Qatari LNG exports has already affected gas supplies, with ICIS cutting its forecast for global LNG supply this year from 441m tonnes to 431m.<\/p>\n The latest escalation, which comes as diplomats claim that talks remain ongoing, again threatens shipping transiting the strait of Hormuz, through which about 20% of the world\u2019s oil and gas passed before the Iran conflict broke out.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotionFree newsletter | Every weekday<\/p>\n Sign up to Business Today<\/span><\/p>\n Get set for the working day \u2013 we’ll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n There has also been a knock-on effect on oil markets from the fresh exchange of fire, with Brent crude briefly breaching the $90 a barrel mark on Sunday \u2013 its highest level in a month \u2013 before easing after Iran said diplomatic exchanges with the US via mediators were continuing despite the strikes.<\/p>\n The price of gas eased later on Monday to about \u20ac57 a MWh.<\/p>\n \u201cGas prices rising to near the peaks of the start of the US-Iran war is a reminder that whatever we do in the UK, it has no significant impact on the price we pay for gas,\u201d said Jess Ralston, the head of energy at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit.<\/p>\n \u201cThe reality is that we are tied to international markets and the volatility that has come twice in the past few years from war thousands of miles away.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" European gas prices have hit a four-month high as the escalation of the conflict in the Middle East raises fears of supply shortages this winter. The Dutch natural gas benchmark briefly rose above \u20ac60 a megawatt hour (MWh) on Monday, near the peaks seen at the start of the US-Iran conflict, after the US expanded<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51314,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[611,715,481,867,1545,269,9155,2229,22231,261,8310],"class_list":{"0":"post-51313","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-energy","9":"tag-european","10":"tag-fears","11":"tag-gas","12":"tag-industry","13":"tag-prices","14":"tag-shortages","15":"tag-surge","16":"tag-usiran","17":"tag-war","18":"tag-winter"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/51314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}