European Union energy ministers will meet on Thursday, October 29, to discuss energy security ahead of the winter heating season, as the wars in Iran, Ukraine and Yemen send oil and natural gas prices soaring, Reuters reported. Fighting has damaged refineries across the Middle East and Russia and has hampered oil and gas flows through the Black Sea, the Red Sea and the Strait of Hormuz.

Source: Reuters

"We are in a very serious situation now. It does not look like we have a security of supply issue, but I would warn against neglecting that," EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen told reporters on Wednesday. He said affordability was just as urgent, arguing that available supply means little to households and businesses that cannot afford it — a warning other reporting echoed as he called the coming winter hard for European citizens and the economy.

€100.37/MWhDutch TTF gas price on Wednesday — first above €100 since December 2022
75%EU gas storage level on October 21, against 83% a year earlier
€32/MWhRoughly where the benchmark traded before the Iran war began in late February

Europe's benchmark gas price, the front-month Dutch TTF contract, traded at €100.37 per megawatt-hour on Wednesday, up more than 4% on the session and roughly triple its pre-Iran-war level, though still far below the record peak of about €340 reached in August 2022. An earlier Awaaz Punjab report noted the benchmark at €91 with record-low storage; the move above €100 is the new development. Storage sites were only 28% full at the end of last winter, against a nine-year average of nearly 40%, and refilling has been slow and costly, according to figures from the EU energy regulators' agency ACER reported by BigGo Finance.

Source: BigGo Finance

The European Commission began talks with European refineries on Wednesday to find ways to boost output, including through the possible easing of some technical specifications. About a quarter of Europe's refineries have shut over the past two decades, and the Commission expects the global diesel market to remain tight through 2027, keeping energy prices elevated.

Western powers also agreed this month to accelerate the release of over 400 million barrels of emergency oil stocks after pressure from the United States — yaani, more than 40 crore barrels of reserve oil being pushed into the market to cool prices.

Ministers will also discuss a Commission proposal to cut electricity bills through tax and grid-fee reforms, including taxing electricity at a lower rate than natural gas. The EU is entering the heating season with stocks at 75% of available storage, against 83% a year ago. For the lakhs of Punjabi and Indian workers and students across Europe, the outcome matters directly: heating bills, rents and transport costs this winter will be set by the prices being fought over in this meeting.

What happens next: ministers must decide whether the refinery and tax measures move from discussion to action before temperatures fall. Gas traders will watch the TTF benchmark — if it holds above €100, household energy bills across the continent are expected to rise further in the coming weeks.