By Geoffrey Smith
Investing.com -- U.K. natural gas prices spiked on Thursday but quickly turned lower on the day after a hoax bomb threat against a key Norwegian gas processing facility.
The facility at Nyhamna is linked to the giant Ormen Lange field that meets up to 20% of the U.K.'s daily demand.
Front-month Futures rose to as much as 330 pence a therm, a two-week high, before completely reversing their move to stand at 292.7p/th by 05:30 ET (09:30 GMT), after newswires reported Norwegian police as saying they had "clarified" the incident.
Earlier reports had said that the processing facility had had to be fully evacuated after the police received the initial warning.
The incident comes at a time when nervousness about the security of Europe's energy supplies is at an acute level, after Russia - traditionally the continent's largest gas supplier - cut almost all shipments in an effort to pressure EU states and Britain into dropping their support for Ukraine.
Last month, sabotage crippled the Nord Stream pipeline that used to ship Russian gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea, while Norwegian authorities have also reported increased sightings of drones flying around offshore oil and gas facilities.
In Ukraine itself, Russia has this week started deliberately targeting the country's power supply with missile strikes, hitting power stations and grid installations across the country.