EU gas storage sat at roughly 40 percent at the start of June, far below the seasonal norm and, the Financial Times reports, the lowest in 15 years for this stage of the refill season. With most Russian pipeline gas gone and Qatari LNG lost indefinitely, Brussels is quietly loosening its filling targets — and Luxembourg, which stores no gas of its own, is fully exposed to the result.
The United States carried out strikes on Iranian military sites after Washington blamed an Iranian drone for damaging a Singapore-flagged cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz. Bahrain, home to the U.S. Fifth Fleet, then reported coming under Iranian drone attack — testing a ceasefire that President Trump had called the foundation of a lasting peace.
An explosion at the Barzan gas facility in Qatar's Ras Laffan complex killed at least 13 workers and injured 66, days after the plant was restarted following a war-related shutdown. The energy minister blamed a technical malfunction, ruled out sabotage and said exports would be unaffected.
Speaking at Harvard on 6 February, Luc Frieden told a European audience the continent can no longer take the United States for granted and must own its economy, energy and security. For Luxembourg — Europe's largest fund domicile and one of its most open economies — his call to build a single capital market and cut external dependency is a matter of direct national interest, not grand strategy.
New U.S. strikes in southern Iran were reported while negotiations continued, keeping attention on the Strait of Hormuz and the global fuel-price exposure that matters to Luxembourg.