Gas prices jump by 4%, the reason is in the Middle East. Because now the war is scary

The price of gas in the European reference benchmark advances today, Monday 20 November.
Dutch monthly futures rose 4.3% to 47.00 euros per megawatt hour in the early part of the morning and at the time of writing were trading at 46.125 euros per megawatt hour, up more than 2%.
The reason for the unexpected jump is the context of the Israel-Hamas war, with new developments that have raised fears of regional escalation.
Since the conflict broke out on October 7, analysts have underlined that the risk of seeing gas and oil prices soar would have been high in the event of an expansion of hostilities in the hot Middle Eastern region.
European natural gas prices rose after a ship seized in the Red Sea by Iran-backed Houthi rebels renewed concerns that the ongoing war could impact maritime trade routes in the Middle East, crucial for transporting fuel.
read also Gas prices falling this winter? The answer in 3 points Gas prices rise in Europe: there is tension on the Red Sea According to data compiled by Bloomberg, the seized vessel, known as Galaxy Leader, is owned by a unit of the man's Ray Shipping Group Israeli businessman Rami Ungar.
Earlier in 2021, another of its vessels was hit by an explosion near the Strait of Hormuz.
The news was an alarm for energy supplies, especially in Europe.
It has been repeatedly warned by experts that an expanded conflict beyond Palestine and into the Middle East could cause the disruption of fuel flows in the region, which hosts one of the world's busiest shipping routes.
Oil tankers from Qatar, a major exporter of liquefied natural gas, regularly cross the Red Sea on their way to Europe.
Iran denied involvement in the incident on Sunday, but a spokesman for the Houthi group said it would continue to target Israeli ships until the end of the military operation against Hamas.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office condemned the seizure.
read also War in the Middle East threatens world trade.
The risk map There is maximum alert, even if Europe is preparing to start winter with full storage sites and large imports of LNG.
The supply balance, however, is fragile and the old continent remains very vulnerable to possible geopolitical upheavals capable of causing the price of gas to fluctuate.
The continent already experienced an energy crisis last year, when Russia curbed gas flows through pipelines.
“At the moment anything that could be a problem seems to cause prices to rise.
Potentially the conflict could widen and that could disrupt flows from Qatar into Europe, but at the moment there is no sign of anything like that happening,” said Jonathan Stern, a research fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies.