EUROPE GAS-Benchmark European gas breaches €80/MWh for the first time since January 2023

Europe's gas stores are 67.12% full, compared to 79.48% a year ago, latest data from Gas Infrastructure Europe showed.

HSBC forecasts European inventories will reach 73% by Nov. 1, the lowest since data collection began in 2009, and does not expect Qatari LNG exports, excluding damaged capacity, to return to normal until at least early next year.

"The market is now pricing in the tightness. Low storage, sluggish injections, constrained Gulf exports, robust gas-fired power demand and renewed US-Iran escalation weakened confidence in a near-term normalisation of LNG flows," said Sandan Ali, global oil and gas analyst at HSBC.

"TTF has also moved back to a premium to JKM (the Asian benchmark), indicating that Europe is bidding more aggressively for marginal LNG," he added in a research note.