Iran launched missile strikes on Ras Laffan Industrial City in Qatar in the early hours of Thursday, March 19, 2026, hitting one of the world’s most important liquefied natural gas centres and setting off a wave of energy attacks across the Gulf region.
Several facilities experienced “extensive damage” and “sizeable fires” during the pre-dawn attack, according to state-owned QatarEnergy. This occurred one day following a strike at the Pearl Gas-to-Liquids facility.
The extent of the damage was characterized as significant, but Qatar’s interior minister said that all fires had been extinguished and no casualties had been reported.
The strikes are widely understood as Iran’s response to an Israeli attack the previous day on Iran’s South Pars gas field, the largest gas field in the world.
That Israeli strike was the first time major fossil fuel production had been directly targeted since the United States and Israel launched military operations nearly three weeks ago.
South Pars, which Iran shares with Qatar, produces up to 70% of Iran’s total gas output. Early reports indicate that sections responsible for about 12% of that output may have been hit.
Trump distances U.S. from Israeli operation, issues stark warning
U.S. President Donald Trump moved quickly to distance Washington from the Israeli operation.
In posts on Truth Social, Trump said the U.S. “knew nothing” of the strike on South Pars and stressed that Qatar played no part in the attack.
He said Israel would hold back from any further strikes on the Iranian field as long as Tehran stopped hitting Qatari facilities.
But Trump also issued a stark warning. He wrote that “The United States of America, with or without the help or consent of Israel, will massively blow up the entirety of the South Pars Gas Field at an amount of strength and power that Iran has never seen or witnessed before” if Iran continues targeting Qatar.
Additionally, the U.S. administration is reportedly considering sending thousands of troops to the area.
In an attempt to reduce domestic fuel prices, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent hinted that Washington would soon remove sanctions on 140 million barrels of Iranian oil that are now being detained aboard tankers.
Trump’s threat raises fears of a global energy crisis
Markets reacted immediately. Brent crude climbed more than 5%, briefly crossing $119 a barrel, close to its highest level in three and a half years.
At the Dutch TTF hub, European natural gas prices increased by almost 16%, hitting a three-year high.
The stock markets in Asia plummeted. Due to their heavy reliance on imported LNG, South Korea’s KOSPI sank by about 3%, and Japan’s Nikkei 225 plunged by 3.4%.
While some supply outages can be swiftly resolved, analysts warn that the physical destruction of energy installations is a different story. Citing the events in Iraq and Ukraine, experts assert that large-scale energy infrastructure restoration following a conflict is a challenging process and that global supplies may be affected for years.
A significant portion of the largest natural gas reserve in the world would be lost if Trump’s threat to totally demolish Iran’s South Pars gas field comes to pass.
That kind of damage, on top of the hits already taken by Qatar LNG plants and the Strait of Hormuz staying closed, would create a long-term shortage of natural gas that cannot be fixed quickly. Repairs on this scale often take years.
Oil prices could stay stuck above $100–120 a barrel, while natural gas prices in Europe and Asia would keep hitting record highs.
Countries like Japan, South Korea, China, India, and parts of Europe that rely heavily on imported LNG would face serious shortages, pushing up inflation, hurting factories, slowing the whole world economy, and raising the chances of recessions in places most dependent on steady energy supplies.
Source: https://www.cryptopolitan.com/supply-shortage-trump-threatens-destruction/
