Europe’s benchmark natural gas prices surge 6% amid Saudi pipeline shutdown

European natural gas prices spiked roughly 6% at Monday’s market open in Amsterdam, pushing the front-month Dutch TTF futures to around €80 per megawatt-hour. That puts prices at their highest point since early 2023, when the continent was still reeling from the aftershocks of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the scramble to replace pipeline gas with seaborne LNG. The catalyst this time: a shutdown of a Saudi pipeline amid broader escalation across the Middle East, which is threatening energy flows through some of the world’s most critical trading corridors. Oil markets are feeling the heat too, with Brent crude consolidating above $102 per barrel. What’s driving the spike TTF prices are now more than 150% higher than they were before the most recent round of Middle East conflicts intensified. LNG shipments, which became Europe’s lifeline after Russian pipeline flows collapsed in 2022, are particularly vulnerable to disruptions in the Gulf. Any escalation that narrows the corridor for tanker traffic or forces rerouting adds cost and delay to an already stretched supply chain. European gas inventories are sitting below historical norms heading into winter. After the 2022 crisis, EU ...