European natural gas prices gain amid fading hopes for U.S.-Iran peace deal in General Energy News 13/05/2026 European natural gas prices rose on Tuesday, tracking an uptick in oil prices, as hopes dimmed for an imminent end to the Iran war. The benchmark Dutch front-month contract at the TTF hub edged up by 1.3% to 46.835 euros per megawatt hour by 09:17 ET (13:17 GMT), according to Intercontinental Exchange data. The British contract for June was also higher by 1.6% at 115.27 pence therm. U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters on Monday that a ceasefire between Washington and Tehran was on “massive life support” after he rejected Iran’s response to an American peace proposal. Trump dismissed the counteroffer, which was similar to plans previously floated by Iran, in strident terms, calling it “unacceptable” and later “a piece of garbage” that he did not even believe was worth reading fully. At the same time, there were indications that brinkmanship was returning to the conflict. According to CNN, Trump, impatient with dithering negotiations, is now seriously mulling restarting major combat operations. Some observers have suggested that Trump’s much-anticipated upcoming trip to China and meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping could help crack the stalemate, adding that China, a major importer of Iranian crude, may act as a guarantor of any long-term peace agreement. But with uncertainty looming over the crisis and, crucially, the Strait of Hormuz remaining all but shuttered to tanker traffic, oil prices climbed once again. Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, were last higher by 3.2% at $107.56 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures gained 3.3% to $101.30 a barrel. The Strait of Hormuz is a critical conduit for roughly a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas. Analysts have flagged that ongoing or increased disruptions to shipping in the waterway could weigh on Europe’s ability to eventually top up gas storage levels that are now running below the five-year average. Source: Investing.com 2026-05-13 hellenicshippingnews... window.___gcfg = {lang: 'en-US'}; (function(w, d, s) { function go(){ var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0], load = function(url, id) { if (d.getElementById(id)) {return;} js = d.createElement(s); js.src = url; js.id = id; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }; load('//connect.facebook.net/en/all.js#xfbml=1', 'fbjssdk'); load('https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js', 'gplus1js'); load('//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js', 'tweetjs'); } if (w.addEventListener) { w.addEventListener("load", go, false); } else if (w.attachEvent) { w.attachEvent("onload",go); } }(window, document, 'script')); tweet Share