The ominous threat came as tensions among EU ministers rose after a month of squabbling over an European Commission proposal to cap the derivatives price of gas traded in Amsterdam, the Financial Times reported. The Dutch Title Transfer Facility (TTF) market is the region’s main centre for trading and setting gas prices, and it has become a symbolic issue as the bloc tries to respond to its escalating energy crisis.

ICE warned in a memo sent to member countries recently that imposing a cap too quickly would leave no time for customers to adapt or for the market operator to test the system’s resilience and risk management systems.

According to the report, a cap would likely force traders to immediately recalculate their prices, risks, and costs, putting additional strain on the market. The memo read, “As a consequence, it is the responsibility of ICE as the market operator to consider all options if this mechanism is agreed, up to and including whether an effective market in the Netherlands is still viable.”

ICE declined to elaborate. The exchange operator, based in Atlanta, has warned that a cap would impose unsustainable costs on utility companies and other traders who use it, forcing consumer prices to rise. The EU’s latest proposal would impose a cap if TTF futures prices exceeded €220 per megawatt hour for five consecutive days and were €35 per MWh higher than average liquefied natural gas prices.

The EU also wants to expand its original plan from including only month-ahead futures contracts to ones that settled three months hence. ICE has warned gas traders would be forced to find another $47bn in margin payments, around double the current levels they pay, if a revised plan went ahead. The European Central Bank also warned last week that a cap could jeopardise “financial stability in the eurozone in some circumstances.”