Europe gas storage hits 15-year low on Iran war-end bets
The Wall Street Journal’s Morning Risk Report on Wednesday questioned whether the “Economic D-Day” campaign the Trump administration unveiled last week can succeed where past U.S. and Western sanctions efforts against governments have largely lagged. The Journal, in a newsletter edited by David Smagalla, pointed to Cuba, North Korea, Venezuela, and Syria as cautionary precedents. Leaders of those governments have historically used “a mix of violence, economic adaptation and political suppression” to withstand economic pain “for years, if not decades,” the report said.
The Journal’s Europe-focused items on Wednesday covered a separate economic exposure. European Union gas storage facilities stood at 65% of capacity at the end of summer — the lowest level for that point in the year in at least 15 years, the report said. Companies have been reluctant to purchase gas for storage because they anticipated that Qatar, the world’s second-largest exporter of liquefied natural gas, would resume normal shipments through the Strait of Hormuz once the conflict ends. Liquefied natural gas prices reached a 3½-year high this week amid fading prospects for a clear end to the war before winter.
The newsletter also carried remarks from NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, who on Wednesday said Russia had “grown increasingly reckless.” Rutte cited a string of small-scale attacks across Europe, including “the targeting by Russia of a German airport with explosive drones.”
The Morning Risk Report also flagged three further compliance and enforcement items. In a securities fraud case, the founder of private-stock investment firm Linqto, William Sarris, was charged this week with securities fraud, broker-dealer fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy. Prosecutors allege Sarris manufactured false scarcity of private company shares to drive up prices and pushed markups beyond what his own lawyers warned was lawful. A lawyer for Sarris said he “is innocent of these charges and intends to fight them.” Separately, the U.K.’s Serious Fraud Office settled a lawsuit brought by Kazakh mining firm Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation; ENRC had sought $290 million in damages related to a botched SFO investigation that ran from 2013 to 2023, plus legal fees, increased borrowing costs, and other expenses. The SFO declined to disclose the financial terms of the settlement because of confidentiality agreements. And a Group of 20 statement issued Tuesday at a meeting of finance ministers and central-bank chiefs in Asheville, North Carolina, implicitly criticized Beijing by calling on countries with persistent surpluses to end policies causing an overreliance on exports, in a development reflecting growing global concerns about Chinese manufacturing and export dominance.
As MSI previously reported, Iranian commerce continued operating in Dubai despite the U.S. sanctions push (Iranian commerce in Dubai despite sanctions push).