LONDON: European wholesale natural gas prices climbed to fresh 2022 highs on Wednesday, as renewed ballistic missile and drone strikes by Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi movement against critical Saudi Arabian energy infrastructure threatened to derail diplomatic de-escalation efforts, compounding fears over global fuel security ahead of peak winter heating demand. The front-month Dutch TTF contract, the benchmark for continental Europe, advanced 1.2% to 97.35 euros per megawatt-hour (MWh), trading at its highest level in roughly four years. Across the Channel, the British equivalent NBP futures contract gained 1.5% to 241.00 pence per therm, also touching a new 2022 high-water mark and extending its winning streak to a sixth consecutive session. The renewed rally across European natural gas curves followed a sharp escalation in regional hostilities that overshadowed nascent diplomatic engagement in Tehran. Delegations from Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan had gathered with senior Iranian officials in the Iranian capital on Monday, issuing joint statements confirming an agreement to pursue sustained dialogue aimed at restoring regional peace and security. However, any optimism generated across global trading desks quickly evaporated after the Houthi movement announced on Tuesday that it had targeted Saudi Arabia's Ras Tanura oil refinery - the kingdom's largest refining complex and crude export terminal - with a ballistic missile. The strike followed earlier coordinated attacks this week on pumping stations along Saudi Arabia's vital East-West Crude Oil Pipeline, as well as Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport. Because the 1,200-kilometer East-West pipeline represents the primary conduit allowing energy supplies to bypass the heavily contested Strait of Hormuz by transporting volumes to Red Sea ports, the attacks highlighted the extreme vulnerability of alternative supply corridors. With commercial navigation through the Strait of Hormuz already severely disrupted by the wider conflict involving Iran, energy traders moved swiftly to price out prospective de-escalation discounts. The persistent threat to Middle Eastern energy infrastructure has effectively shut down normal seaborne Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) trade routes, leaving European utilities structurally short of replacement volumes. With LNG carriers forced to circumnavigate Africa via the Cape of Good Hope, transit times have extended by roughly 10 to 14 days, raising shipping freight costs and keeping spot deliveries to European regasification terminals down by nearly 80% compared with year-ago levels.