April 21, 2026 Daily Overview

Hormuz, Ras Laffan & the Cascade Into Europe and South Asia

Hormuz transit disruption and Ras Laffan missile damage are transmitting supply stress directly into Italian and Pakistani import markets with no near-term fix in sight.

Italy loses a third of its LNG supply as QatarEnergy declares force majeure QatarEnergy declared force majeure on Italian cargoes after Ras Laffan was hit — Qatar was roughly one-third of Italy's LNG imports and 10% of total gas — forcing Edison to buy more U.S. LNG while TransMed runs close to capacity and storage sits at 46%. Read This: Bloomberg

IEA's Birol calls this the worst energy crisis in history Fatih Birol told France Inter the Iran-U.S.-Israel conflict combines an oil crisis and a gas crisis worse than 1973, 1979, and 2022 combined — Hormuz is choking a fifth of global oil and LNG flows on top of already-severed Russian supply to Europe. Read This: Reuters via Baird Maritime