Gas prices on the European exchange rose to nearly €60 on March 3 — a third higher than the previous day and the highest level since February 2023. The day before, QatarEnergy announced a halt in LNG production due to attacks by Iran.

The price of the April futures contract for gas delivery at Europe’s largest exchange hub, TTF in the Netherlands, rose to €59.44 per megawatt-hour on the morning of Tuesday, March 3, according to the dpa agency. The agency noted that this is 30 percent higher than the day before and a record level since February 2023.

On March 1, the Qatari national oil and gas company QatarEnergy, which supplies about 20% of the world’s liquefied natural gas, announced that it would stop LNG production and related products due to Iranian attacks on its industrial facilities in the Qatari cities of Ras Laffan and Mesaieed. The company did not specify when it plans to resume production. Following this news, global gas prices began to rise sharply.

Since the start of the week, gas prices in Europe have increased by more than 80 percent. However, this rise remains below the levels seen at the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine four years ago, when prices at the TTF hub briefly exceeded €300 per MWh.

The price of Brent crude oil, extracted from the North Sea, rose more than 8% on the morning of March 3, reaching $85.12 (€73.38) per barrel — the highest level since July 2024. The main U.S. crude benchmark, West Texas Intermediate, increased more than seven percent to $76.47 (about €65.92) per barrel.

On February 28, the first day of the Israeli-American military operation against it, Iran began blocking shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, which accounts for about 20% of global oil supply. Attacks on several oil tankers in this area have already been reported.

Israel and the United States began striking Iranian territory on the morning of February 28. U.S. President Donald Trump announced his intention to destroy the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program. He called on the Iranian army to lay down arms and urged the country’s citizens to “take their fate into their own hands.”