Missiles breach defenses at Ras Laffan
Iranian missiles slammed into Qatar's Ras Laffan Industrial City on March 18 and again early on March 19, causing what QatarEnergy called "extensive damage" to several liquefied natural gas facilities and the Pearl Gas-to-Liquids plant. Four incoming missiles were intercepted, but at least one got through. It triggered sizeable fires across the Pearl GTL facility and surrounding infrastructure.
QatarEnergy CEO Saad al-Kaabi said the strikes knocked out 17% of the country's LNG export capacity. All personnel were accounted for and no casualties were reported, according to the company.
Ras Laffan is the single largest LNG production site on earth. It handles roughly a fifth of global LNG shipments, feeding markets from Tokyo to London.
A second blow to a facility already offline
The latest strikes compound damage from an earlier Iranian drone attack on March 2 that forced Qatar to suspend all LNG production at Ras Laffan and hit a water tank at the Mesaieed petrochemical complex. The facility had not restarted before the new missiles arrived.
That means Qatar's LNG exports, already trapped behind the Strait of Hormuz blockade since early March, now face physical production damage on top of a shipping bottleneck. Restoring output will take weeks at a minimum, industry analysts say.
European gas surges 35%
Markets reacted fast. The front-month contract at the Dutch TTF hub, Europe's benchmark for natural gas, jumped more than 35% to around 61 euros per megawatt-hour. Brent crude briefly spiked above $119 a barrel before falling back to $107.67 after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was "helping to open" the Strait of Hormuz.
WTI crude settled at $95.55, down 0.77% on the day, as traders weighed the Qatar damage against hopes of de-escalation.
Gulf energy infrastructure under fire
Ras Laffan was not the only target. Iran also struck the UAE's Habshan gas facility and Bab field, Saudi Arabia's Samref oil refinery in Yanbu, and two Kuwaiti gas units at Mina Al-Ahmadi and Mina Abdullah. The attacks came hours after Israel bombed Iran's South Pars gas field, a massive offshore reservoir shared with Qatar.
French President Emmanuel Macron called for "a moratorium on strikes targeting civilian infrastructure, particularly energy and water supply facilities." Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said bluntly: "What little trust there was has completely been shattered."
Qatar expels Iranian attachés
Doha's response was swift. Qatar's Foreign Ministry declared the Iranian embassy's military and security attachés persona non grata and gave them 24 hours to leave the country. The ministry called the attack "a dangerous escalation, a flagrant violation of its sovereignty, and a direct threat to its national security."
The diplomatic rupture marks a sharp turn for Qatar, which had maintained relatively warm ties with Tehran and acted as a go-between during earlier rounds of U.S.-Iran negotiations.
What it means for global gas supply
With Qatar sidelined, roughly 20% of the world's LNG supply is effectively offline. The IEA's record 400-million-barrel emergency release addressed crude oil, but there is no equivalent strategic reserve for natural gas.
Europe entered the crisis with gas storage at a four-year low. Asia is scrambling too. India has begun rationing natural gas to manufacturers, capping fertilizer plants at 70% of their demand.
The question now is whether the damage can be contained. If the Strait of Hormuz reopens soon, the physical repairs at Ras Laffan become the binding constraint. If the strait stays closed, the repairs barely matter because the gas has no way out regardless.
Either way, the world just lost a pillar of its energy supply chain, and rebuilding it will not happen overnight.