European natural-gas prices remained well supported, and ING said “the market and [EU] member countries are becoming increasingly concerned about the task of refilling storage through the injection season and the fact that the forward curve provides no incentive to store gas for next winter.

Europe is increasingly reliant on its ability to attract LNG following the loss of Russian gas through Ukraine, as it depletes its gas in storage. The EU’s gas storage was 59 per cent full as of Monday, 15 per cent below the same time last year, according to industry body Gas Infrastructure Europe. Colder weather contributed to a faster withdrawal.

European natural-gas prices rose more than 3%, a jump largely attributed to an outage at the U.S. Freeport LNG facility and news that Germany might subsidize storage refills this summer to ensure the country reaches its target.