European natural gas prices slip on hopes for Middle East ceasefire in General Energy News 02/04/2026 European natural gas prices fell on Wednesday amid hopes for an imminent de-escalation in the more than month-old war in Iran. The Dutch TTF front-month contract, the European natural gas benchmark, had last fallen by 4.0% to 48.75 euros per megawatt hour by 05:30 ET (09:30 GMT). U.S. President Donald Trump has suggested that U.S. military forces will leave Iran in two to three weeks, saying his goal of eliminating the country’s nuclear threat has been achieved. The U.S. and Israel first jointly attacked Iran on February 28. “We’ll be leaving [Iran] very soon,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “We’ll leave because there’s no reason for us to do this.” The U.S. does not need a formal deal with Iran to withdraw from the country, Trump claimed, adding that “[i]t will take 15-20 years for them to rebuild what we’ve done to them,” he said. Trump said military operations are ongoing in Iran, noting that the U.S. has “knocked out tremendous amounts of missile-making facilities.” Israel has continued to target sites in Tehran and central Iran, as well as Beirut in Lebanon, while Iran has sent projectiles at Israel and Persian Gulf countries. The president also addressed rising gasoline prices in the U.S., which have topped an average of $4 a gallon. Trump said American consumers should expect gas prices to fall once he ends the war in Iran. “[W]e have a country that’s not going to be throwing a nuclear weapon at us,” Trump responded when asked about the price increase. “And they’re also feeling a lot safer.” Trump added that the responsibility for reopening the Strait of Hormuz should fall on countries that depend on it, telling reporters there is “no reason for us to do this.” “That’s not for us. That’ll be for France. That’ll be for whoever’s using the strait,” he added, reiterating comments made in a social media post this week. The Strait of Hormuz has become a crucial flashpoint in the Iran conflict. The effective closure of the narrow waterway, through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil supply squeezes, has threatened to ignite inflationary pressures in countries around the globe and darkened the wider economic outlook. Natural gas products from countries in the Persian Gulf, many of which have themselves been targeted by Iranian strikes, also flow through the strait. These supply concerns have fueled a more than 52% jump in the TTF contract in the past one-month period. The spike has already appeared to have an impact on European economies. Eurozone inflation accelerated above the European Central Bank’s 2% target in March, due mainly to the energy price shock. ECB officials have indicated that they are ready to potentially hike interest rates to combat even temporary inflationary pressures. Source: Investing.com 2026-04-02 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,