European gas prices hit a five-month high after Russia deepened supply cuts to the continent in Moscow’s latest attempt to weaponise energy supplies.

Futures contracts for delivery next month tied to TTF, the European benchmark wholesale gas price, jumped about 6 per cent on Tuesday to €188 per megawatt hour, the highest level since early March, a day after Russia warned of lighter flows on the largest pipeline supplying the region.

Prices are more than five times higher than a year ago.

Russian state-backed energy group Gazprom said on Monday that flows on the Nord Stream 1 pipeline would plummet to 33mn cubic metres from Wednesday because of turbine maintenance issues.

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That would amount to a fifth of the pipeline’s capacity and half of current levels.

“Everyone in the market was expecting Russian volumes to drop,” said James Huckstepp, manager of EMEA gas analytics at S&P Global Commodity Insights, a consultancy.

“But the market wasn’t expecting flows to fall this quickly.”

Read more: FT