European Gas Hits €100 for the First Time Since 2022 as Winter Storage Runs Low
European benchmark gas touched €100 per megawatt-hour on October 28, 2026, the first time the contract has reached that level since December 2022, Reuters reported. The move extended a rally that had already lifted prices above €97 earlier in the month, the level at which the Wall Street Journal reported the highest prices since late 2022 on October 23.
A megawatt-hour (MWh) is one megawatt of power sustained for one hour, and it is the unit in which European gas and power are typically quoted. The benchmark is the Dutch Title Transfer Facility (TTF) front-month future, a contract to buy or sell gas for delivery in the nearest month. CNBC describes Dutch TTF gas futures as Europe's natural gas benchmark. ICE, the exchange that lists the contract, says it settles by physical delivery, through the transfer of rights in respect of natural gas at the TTF Virtual Trading Point. Its exchange delivery settlement price is the end-of-day settlement on the contract's last trading day. For anyone managing expiry exposure, that means the final settlement is set by the closing print, not by an intraday spike.
Storage is the tightness behind the move. In October, Reuters reported that analysts and industry forecasters expected European gas storage to reach 75% to 78% full by November 1, the end of the restocking period. By late October, EU storage was about 75% full, per CNBC. That sits at the bottom of the range forecasters had pencilled in for the deadline. A shortfall at the end of injection season leaves less cushion for a cold winter.
Prices did not stop at the peak. Trading Economics showed EU natural gas at 96.32 euros per MWh on November 3, 2026, up 1.53% from the previous session and 31.02% higher over the past month. ICE's listing showed the December 2026 contract at 94.200 euros per MWh at 9:58 p.m. on November 2, below the October 28 print but still well above spring levels. Reuters had reported in May that TTF had risen to 74 euros per MWh in March and was hovering around 50 at that point.
The forward curve, the set of prices quoted for different delivery dates, is the more revealing part. ICE's listings from the evening of November 2 showed the July 2027 contract at 68.300 euros, the June 2027 at 69.260, and the Q2 2027 quarter at 71.985. December 2026, at roughly 94 euros, sits well above all of them. That is a steeply backwardated curve, where nearer deliveries are priced above later ones. Backwardation describes where prices are quoted, not a forecast that they will fall, and the curve can move faster than the physical balance it reflects.
For ordinary households and businesses, the link runs through gas-fired power and heating contracts, many of which reprice with a lag. For traders and hedgers, the more immediate question is how fast storage can be rebuilt once injections slow, and whether the winter-to-summer spread holds.
In my reading, the sharpest exposure sits in the December contract and the spreads around it, where the storage shortfall and the front-month settlement mechanics meet. Anyone pricing winter risk will want the storage trajectory through November as closely as the screen price, because the screen price has already moved well ahead of the restocking data.
