Investing.com - US natural gas prices rose Monday, boosted by continued cold weather and geopolitical tensions.

At 09:20 ET (14:20 GMT), natural gas prices rose 2.2% to $3.917 per million British thermal units, or MMBtu.

Wintery conditions in North America as well as in northern Europe have pushed natural gas prices higher, with prices almost 20% higher over the course of the last month.

In Europe, EU storage sites entered March 38% full, well below the 62% level registered in the year-earlier period.

“Stockpiles are certainly below average for the time of the year,” according to Natasha Fielding, head of European gas pricing at Argus Media. “But Europe has seen lower. On March 1, 2018, during the ‘beast from the east’ cold snap, EU sites were 28% full.”

Additionally, investors are keeping an eye on the potential for a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia, given the conflict has resulted in supply disruptions for more than two years.

Britain and France will work on a peace deal with Ukraine and present it to U.S. President Donald Trump, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Sunday, in an attempt to revive hopes of an end to the conflict after Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy clashed in an extraordinary meeting at the White House at the end of last week.

Still, a potential resumption of Russian gas flows to Europe if a peace deal with Ukraine is reached would face significant legal and logistical challenges, according to Argus Media’s Natasha Fielding.

Several arbitration cases between Russia’s gas giant Gazprom (MCX: GAZP ) and European buyers would hinder the process, while sanctions on the Yamal-Europe pipeline and damage to the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 pipelines would complicate matters even further.