The spot price of gas in Europe rose by 19% today on the back of the start of major scheduled repairs at gas fields in Norway. At the global level, price growth should also be supported by the news of a fire at the Freeport LNG plant with a capacity of 15 million tons per year.

The nearest, July TTF futures on the ICE Futures exchange rose to $1021 per thousand cubic meters after $855 at Wednesday’s close.

According to Norwegian gas transportation operator Gassco, the Visund and Heimdal fields shut down for annual maintenance on June 8 (a total of 22 million cubic meters per day), and the larger fields – Troll and Kollsnes – shut down on June 9 (82 million cubic meters). At the moment, the total capacity retirement is 104 million cubic meters per day.

Freeport LNG operations have been halted for at least three weeks due to a fire on Wednesday.