Gas Prices in Europe at Highest Since End of 2022, Storage Delays

Gas prices in Europe reached their highest level since the end of 2022 on Wednesday as a new wave of armed conflict in the Middle East coincided with accelerated filling of storage in the EU ahead of the heating season.

A megawatt-hour of gas for delivery in October was priced at €78.77 on the Dutch TTF exchange this morning, the highest since the second half of December 2022. Compared to yesterday’s market close, the price was up by 3.9 percent. The new price surge was driven by the escalation of the war in the Middle East.

The U.S. military announced that it attacked three tankers carrying Iranian oil on Saturday as part of a maritime blockade and tightened sanctions against Iran. Tehran responded a few hours later by attacking three tankers, justifying that they were passing through the Hormuz route not approved by the Iranian military. All ships using such routes can expect to be attacked, warned the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Navy.

On the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, the U.S. reported new attacks on Iranian oil tankers. The Iranian military announced on Wednesday that it had fired ballistic missiles at a base in Jordan and attacked ten ships. Over the past 10 days, an average of 10 commercial vessels passed through the Strait of Hormuz daily, the lowest since May, according to data from analytical company Kpler.

Before the war, about one-fifth of global liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments passed through Hormuz, and from March to August, LNG exports from the region around the Persian Gulf plummeted by over 85 percent compared to the same period last year, according to Kpler data. Tight supply has sparked fierce competition among European and Asian buyers for the remaining shipments.

Extreme heat across much of Asia has triggered a wave of demand for energy for cooling systems, so during the summer months, a large portion of LNG that would otherwise be used for summer gas storage filling ahead of the heating season ended up in Asian countries instead of the Old Continent, Reuters reported.

According to Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) data, gas storage in the EU was filled to 67.12 percent of capacity on Tuesday. On the same day in 2025, capacities were filled to 79.48 percent.

In Croatia, gas storage was filled to 77.20 percent of capacity on Tuesday, according to GIE data. On the same day last year, it was filled to 87.10 percent of capacity.

The pace of gas storage filling in the Union this year is below the ten-year European average and weaker than last year, warned the EU Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) earlier this month. The European Commission announced on Friday that despite low stock levels, the security of gas supply in the EU this winter is not in question.