Natural gas futures prices rose in European trading on Thursday to their highest levels since the beginning of this year after Ukrainian forces announced the capture of the main Sudzha natural gas transit point.
Bloomberg News Agency reported that futures contracts rose by 5.8% to 38.79 euros ($42.42) per megawatt/hour, the highest daily increase since early June.
The unofficial Russian military blog Rebar reported that Ukrainian forces had captured a gas transit point near the Russian border town of Sudzha, but this has not been confirmed by independent sources.
Russian gas giant Gazprom declined to comment on the reports, as did the Ukrainian Defense Ministry and General Staff.
Traders are concerned about disruption to supplies through this point, which is one of the main remaining points operating in transporting Russian natural gas to Europe via pipelines, as fighting between Russians and Ukrainians increases on the Ukrainian border.
potential rise
Any disruption to the flow of Russian gas through this point would likely lead to higher prices, affecting consumers and industries as Europe continues to search for a way out of the energy crisis resulting from the Russia-Ukraine war that began in February 2022.
The company operating the gas pipeline network in Ukraine said in a statement that gas flow is expected to be within normal limits on Thursday.
By 5:53 p.m. Amsterdam time, the Dutch benchmark contract was up 5.3% at €38.62 ($42.23) per megawatt-hour for delivery next month, before easing to €38.46 ($42.06) at the time of writing. Prices for these contracts have risen since the start of the European warehouse filling season in April.
