On Friday, data from the London Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) showed that natural gas futures in Western Europe jumped 5% on Friday, hitting the highest price since early April.
At the Title Transfer Facility (TTF) hub in the Netherlands, during morning trading, the cost of gas futures for November delivery surged to an intraday high of €56.01 ($59.1) per megawatt-hour in household terms, or more than $617 per thousand cubic meters, the highest price in eight months.
The continent’s benchmark futures prices have increased more than 54% since last week.
The surge has been at least partly attributed to the conflict between Israel and Hamas by analysts, which note that the situation led to the shutdown of an offshore gas field which supplies gas to Egypt. In addition, the suspected sabotage of a Baltic Sea pipeline between Finland and Estonia, as well as planned strikes by workers at key export plants in Australia, and the oncoming winter heating season in Europe have all been cited as additional causes for the surge.
