A breakneck rally in European natural gas prices continued Wednesday, propelling benchmarks on the continent to abnormally high premiums above those in Asia and creating massive arbitrage opportunities for U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports. 

Dutch front-month futures have gained about $10/MMBtu over the last week. The January Title Transfer Facility (TTF) contract finished nearly $7 higher than the prompt Japan-Korea Marker (JKM) on Tuesday. The rally lost steam for most of Wednesday as pipeline imports stabilized after a Norwegian outage ended. But as spot prices in Asia moved higher, the January TTF contract gained more than $1 to set a new record and ultimately finish above $43 for the day. 

The spread between the United States and Europe for cargoes leaving the Gulf...