Wednesday 14th October 2026

 Middle Eastern instability and weaker fundamentals see prices push higher. 

Gas and power

Power and gas prices pushed higher on Tuesday as instability in the Middle East continued to worsen, with markets increasingly concerned about the potential for US involvement in the conflict between Saudi Arabia and the Iranian backed Houthi group, which could prolong the conflict further. Meanwhile, temperature forecasts for the UK and Europe were revised lower for the remainder of October, increasing expected heating demand and reducing previous optimism that storage injections could continue until the end of the month. Norwegian flows also remained partially constrained following the recent unplanned outage at the Kårstø gas processing plant, while French supplier EDF announced it would be delaying the restart of its Chooz nuclear reactors until October 27. 

Adjacent markets

Oil markets edged lower yesterday as traders continued to focus on the proposed US-Russia diesel agreement, which could see US sanctions on Russian oil exports eased and contribute to increased global oil supply. Sentiment was also boosted by OPEC's downward revision to its oil demand outlook for the remainder of 2026, despite forecasting stronger demand growth in 2027. Elsewhere, global equity markets softened, with weakness in semiconductor stocks and mixed major bank earnings offsetting the fall in oil prices.  

Closing prices