European gas prices are almost twice as high as before US-Israeli strikes on Iran, and capitals across the EU are scrambling to reassure citizens they have the situation under control.

Gas is trading for upwards of €58 per megawatt-hour at the EU’s TTF hub after Iran said last night it would “burn down” any ship attempting to cross the Strait of Hormuz – a key choke point in global energy trade. A week prior, the same amount of gas sold for €31 per MWh.

Across Europe, which receives almost half of its gas in the form of super-chilled LNG cargoes, national capitals are reduced to repeating mantras voiced in recent energy price shocks: “no shortage imminent”, “we are monitoring the situation”, and “crisis teams” are meeting regularly.

France has created a “crisis unit that meets once a day”, Energy Minister Roland Lescure said on Tuesday morning. Germany, similarly, “has reactivated its crisis mechanisms,” a ministry spokesperson said.

In Berlin, energy officials are expected to meet daily to keep an eye on the situation. Qatar, whose largest LNG facility was shut down by an Iranian drone strike, is effectively barred from sending LNG to global markets, where it normally provides a fifth of total volume.

The German taskforce brings together energy market regulator BNetzA, the Chancellor’s office, the secret service, and the foreign ministry. Industry is also being looped in, the spokesperson added.

France is involving its central bank in the crisis talks, while also engaging with affected industries.

Bad time to be an oil expert

In Brussels, energy experts at EU embassies are being briefed on market developments. National gas supply experts are meeting online on Wednesday morning, while oil market experts – who normally hold sedate annual meetings – are gathering for the second time in a week, with an energy task force due to convene on Thursday.

The director of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol, was already due in Brussels on Friday to discuss a pitch by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to overhaul the bloc’s electricity market design.

Instead, the Turkish energy economist will be asked to brief the bloc’s bureaucrats on the state of global markets, one official suggested, recalling the original mission of an inter-governmental agency set up in response to the major oil crises of the 1970s.

(rh, aw)