EU urges members to start storing winter gas as Iran war causes price surge

War, which saw Iran attack Qatar facility, has caused ‘high, volatile’ gas prices that could hit EU storage projections.The European Union has urged member states to start early on meeting next winter’s gas storage targets after Iranian attacks on Gulf energy facilities caused prices to surge on global markets.Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen sent a letter Saturday urging the bloc’s members to get to work “as early as possible” in the coming months to “mitigate pressure on prices and avoid [an] end-of-summer rush”, asking them to consider cutting their so-called filling target by 10 percentage points to 80 percent.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Will Russian oil be the biggest winner in the US-Israel war on Iran?list 2 of 3QatarEnergy CEO says warned US, industry officials against attack on energylist 3 of 3Will Europe be pulled into the Iran war?end of listThe move came days after Iran attacked Qatar’s Ras Laffan Industrial City complex, which provides about 20 percent of global supplies of liquefied natural gas (LNG). The attack, which came amid the US-Israeli war on Iran, was in retaliation for an Israeli attack on the Iranian South Pars gasfield.State-owned QatarEnergy said that Iran’s attack on Qatar, which has been targeted throughout the duration of the war, knocked out 17 percent of Doha’s export capacity and would affect exports for up to five years.The slowdown will mainly harm Asian buyers, including China, Japan, and India, which buy some 80 percent of QatarEnergy’s LNG.But Europe, which only sources around 9 percent of its LNG from Qatar, will nevertheless be exposed to increased competition, with tanker traffic leaving the Gulf via the Strait of Hormuz throttled by the war.Natural gas prices in the EU have risen by more than 30 percent since the start of the war on February 28, spiking after Israel’s attack on Iran’s critical South Pars gasfield and subsequent Iranian attack on Qatar’s Ras Laffan.