Dutch natural gas prices traded a touch firmer on Monday with contradictory messaging from the US and Iran on whether ships can pass the Strait of Hormuz, where liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply remains trapped.
The benchmark Dutch front-month contract at the TTF hub was up €0.39 at €46.16 per megawatt hour (MWh) by 07:55 GMT after earlier trading as low as €44.50/MWh, data from the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) showed.
The British market is closed on Monday for a public holiday.
President Donald Trump said the US would start helping to free ships stranded in the Persian Gulf by an effective blockade in the Strait of Hormuz amid the Iran conflict, but Iran's military warned US forces not to enter the waterway.
"The market opens sideways today as everyone tracks the developments in the Middle East and whether or not the US will manage to force through a re-opening of Hormuz," said Karsten Sander Nielsen, senior market analyst at Mind Energy. Just one laden LNG tanker has passed the shipping chokepoint since the conflict began on February 28.
The market does not seem convinced by Trump's "Project Freedom" plan, analysts at ING Research said.
Norwegian pipeline gas supplies remain subdued due to maintenance, with nominations totalling 282.6 million cubic metres (mcm) per day, data by Gassco showed.
"Apart from the closed Strait of Hormuz, Europe also has to deal with reduced supply from Norway, fears of a warm and dry summer and very low storage levels," Mind Energy's Nielsen added.
EU gas storage sites were last 33.4 per cent full, compared with around 40.3 per cent at the same time last year, Gas Infrastructure Europe data showed.
(Reporting by Nora Buli; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)